THERE should be an increase in the Constituency Development Fund allocation in order to fully develop our constituencies, Chilanga Constituency Member of Parliament Sipho Hlazo has said.
Speaking to The Scoop, Mr. Hlazo has called for an increase in the CDF allocation to help in fully developing the constituencies as well as for future budgets.
“Chilanga constituency is big and has vast land which requires a lot of resources to be fully developed and the current allocation is not enough to fully develop it,” he said.
He said the CDF was working well but it was not enough to address all the challenges being faced in the constituency.
‘’There is a need for the CDF allocation to be increased looking at the many challenges we have in the constituency. We need to improve our road network in some areas, build classroom blocks and assist some of the vulnerable youths in our constituency,’’ he said.
Mr. Hlazo expressed optimism that his constituency was on the path of development provided there would be an increase in the CDF allocation.
“CDF is working well for us. The only challenge that we have is that Chilanga is a vast constituency which if all resources were made available, we can fully have a developed constituency. Currently, the available resources will not go a long way in developing Chilanga but we are trying and staying hopeful that once the CDF allocation is increased then we will see great development in Chilanga,” he said.
He however stated that all the 12 wards in his constituency were receiving a fair share of the CDF allocation despite much development not being done.
“We have about 12 wards and each of the wards has received a fair share of the allocation. We have projects in each and every ward where we are putting up the water schemes, three health posts, mothers’ shelter, classroom blocks as well as ablution blocks. In terms of students we have sent more than 400 young people to skills training and we are also sending some to boarding schools.
Chilanga lags behind in terms of development but so far there is an improvement,” Mr. Hlazo said.