Some councillors in Dowa have asked the district council to expedite the allocation of plots to people who want to develop new structures at Dowa boma, where old buildings were demolished last year (2022).

They made the call on Friday during the second extra ordinary full council meeting of the first quarter of 2203/2024 fiscal year. The meeting aimed at scrutinising reports from the development committee.

During the meeting, Ward Councillor for Msakambewa East, Martin Luka, demanded to know why the council is delaying to allocate plots to the public.

“The delay is delaying potential development of the district which may come with the new infrastructure,” said Luka, who also asked for an explanation on the alleged assumptions that the layout is a mismatch to what is on the ground.

Concurring with Luka, Councillor for Mponela, Mayamiko Kambewa, urged the local council to speed up the process.

However, in an interview with Malawi News Agency, Dowa Director of Planning and Development, Mercy Mpakule, said the allocation will be done soon as the council was taking into consideration all necessary elements to have proper and standard designs and a legal plot allocation exercise.

“Our plan with the physical planning team is to have a very good-looking town, so, we do not want any shortcuts. There are also issues of a road we want to have there, which has been delayed because of other busy engagements of our grader.

“The other thing is according to the mandate of urban planning, we must have a proper plot allocation committee, and we cannot allocate the plots without that committee. But by next week, we will constitute that committee, and then do the advertising” Mpakule explained.