Tanga City Council to sue mobile phone company
The Tanga City Council has filed a case at the Tanga District Land and Housing Tribunal against MIC Tanzania Limited following its refusal to dismantle a cell phone tower that is claimed to have been constructed at a road reserve in the Bombo area.
Court documents allege that the mobile phone company has refused to construct the communication tower at an area provided by the council’s Works Department.
Court sources have said that a summon has already been sent to MIC Tanzania Limited headquarters in Dar es Salaam and the matter would come for hearing on July 20, before the Chairman of the Tribunal, B K Kishenyi.
The City Council directive was issued vide a letter written on December 29, last year and signed by the City Engineer, R P Lema to the company to dismantle the tower.
The letter said the city fathers were acting following complaints from a neighbour of the plot where the construction of the tower was being undertaken.
It quoted the City Engineer as saying that the Authority had noted that the company undertook the construction of the said tower in a road reserve instead of Plot No. 479 which the council had allocated for the purpose, and issued a construction permit no. 2009159.
It has, however, been discovered that the so-called approved plot is a football ground and neighbours were wondering if such towers are allowed to be constructed in playgrounds.
Last February, residents of the area had threatened to sue the mobile phone company for non-compliance of a city council order to remove the tower and reconstruct it at an approved plot nearby.
The move followed what they felt was silence over the matter by the City Council, one month after the Works Department of the Council which wrote a letter ordering the company to remove the tower.
Source – The Citizen