The iTaukei Land Trust Board has today clarified that they will neither receive any application or expression of interest nor issue any lease for the land known as Bonatoa which belongs to the mataqali Mataqereqere of Suvavou Village.
TLTB CEO Tevita Kuruvakadua made this statement after claims were made by the mataqali Mataqereqere over the weekend saying that TLTB is taking over their land without their consent.
Kuruvakadua says that they do not have any intention to issue any lease on the land in question and they will not consider any lease application or development for Bonatoa.
He adds that the land was first schemed some years ago with the request from the Ministry of Local Government for the formalisation or regularisation of squatter settlements.
The work on the formalisation of the area was stopped due to the landowners’ show of disagreement especially from the head of their mataqali.
Kuruvakadua also says that the same piece of land was later leased out to a bus company but was later withdrawn due to internal bickering and frequent threats from the mataqali.
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