M’mbelwa District Council receives K243m for development projects

Members of Parliament (MPs), ward councillors and chiefs from M’mbelwa District Council on Monday engaged in heated debate during an emergency full council meeting, on how the district’s first development budget allocation should be utilised.

The debate ensued after Mzimba district commissioner Thomas Chirwa announced that government has allocated K243 million ($486 000) to the council to enable it implement various development projects.

Said Chirwa: “In the past, councils only received [other recurrent transactions fund] ORT which was used for office expenditure. But now, for the first time, government has allocated development funds to councils.”

Most councillors present demanded that the funds be distributed equally among the 22 wards in the district. Each ward would receive about K8 million.

Mzimba Solola MP, Jacob Hara, said it was unfortunate that some members want to implement small projects in their wards instead of thinking about major projects for the whole district.

Paramount Chief M’mbelwa V advised members to stop politicking and focus on development.

He said: “I know some of you want to use these funds for drumming up support to win again in 2019 elections, that is why you want to implement small projects at ward level.”

Some of the projects proposed were M’mbelwa District Council office complex and Chimkusa Stadium.