Yakubu Busari
The Plateau State Government have concluded arrangements to create industrial ,commercial and residential Areas for all the 17 Local Government councils in the state to serve as income tax generation to prevent over depended in federal and state allocation in partnership with indigenes in diaspora .
The Commissioner for Land, survey and Town Planning, Hon Yakubu Dati made this disclosure in Jos while addressing the LGAs Chairmen in Jos.
He charged the ALGON members to key into the land reform Agenda of governor Simon Lalong to ensure that each of the councils have liaison building at the state headquarters to avoid reckless spending .
According to him, what we want to do is to create an opportunity for the local government to be able to have their presence in Jos because by the time you have layout for your local government, it also means you have a title with C of O and gradually you can develop place into an estate or headquarter.
Dati explained further that ,” we are trying to create a situation where all the local government will have their presence in Jos ,the state capital such that they will now leave a legacy behind when the time comes, adding each of them can decide what they want to do for their council .
He stressed out that some of the business ventures could be Standard guest houses for accommodation of tourists and also trade fair with modern facilities in the state capital to generate revenue income.
The commissioner maintained that ,the state have a lot of friends and relatives who are resident overseas, they may want to invest in properties but some are going through a lot difficulty in getting land with R, O, and C, O they sent money, they come back home and there is no land, but this the Ministry is providing conducive atmosphere for them to invest at home, he noted .
Dati reiterated that Lalong government has approved the opportunity for every local government to have their presence on Jos ,however, which is officially and legally done towards tackling poverty and reducing unemployment in the state.
As part of the 2020 state budget that was ritually presented to the 9th Assembly ,the Governor Simon Bako Lalong led administration has seen the projects as a pilot phase to revamp the economic base of the state.
We have quite a number of layouts including the GRA. We have about six residential layouts and two industrial layouts.
Hon Yakubu Dati said government planning to create another layout around Bauchi road to avoid further encroachment.
We are trying to replicate what is currently happening in Abuja you know that all the states have their presence in Abuja with their building.
Also we are planning to organize residential and commercial /industrial layouts in the local government areas so that by the time you give us an area in your local government, we should be able to do layouts, create a planned City, so that you will have what we usually call the GRA, where there in all the ends .
We create the roads including the emergency services and fire service where ambulances can easily go in and come out.
So, we believe to have the local government here is going to help developing our sons and daughters that are not resident here, we can easily know that by the time they acquire this lands, it will be something that would be cover by government title .