Officers at Chadiza FTC evicted

——Government workers occupying dormitories at the Farmers Training Centre (FTC) in Chadiza District have been ordered to vacate or pay KR1000 per month as rent.

Most government workers were caught unaware by the move when some Agricultural Officers started delivering letters of increment of rent from KR250 to KR1000 for those occupying the dormitories.

Some workers complained that the Department of Agriculture has taken such a move because it wants to accommodate some Chinese contractors who have been engaged to construct the Chadiza–Chipata Road.

And Chadiza District Agricultural Coordinator (DACO), Mwaba Lubasi, told ZANIS in an interview that his department has its own way of accommodating the Chinese contractors.

Mr Lubasi also said that the department has received communication from the Provincial Agricultural Officer informing him to evict people from the FTC, adding that the Training Centre was meant for farmers.

He said the FTC was just acting as a transit point, adding that people such as government workers were only supposed to lodge there for two to three months in their process of looking for accommodation but that some people have over stayed at the institution, hence the move to have them evicted.

Mr Lubasi added that the Ministry of Agriculture and Livestock was even failing to accommodate its farmers because all the rooms had been taken by people who were renting the dormitories.

However , the question of  ‘renting of the dormitories to the Chinese contractors who will be in the area for three years will not affect the training of farmers’ still remains  unanswered as the district Agriculture Officer has said the department will have its own way of accommodating the Chinese contractors.

Some people have since complained to government, adding that the state was now neglecting its own people in preference of foreign nationals.