By Lily Kampani-Mana

President Dr Lazarus Chakwera has urged Councilors from Lilongwe to take on the initiative to ensure all strategies put in place for the development of the city are truly implemented on the ground if they are to achieve the vison of a clean, green and prosperous capital city.

He was speaking on Thursday at Kamuzu Palace in Lilongwe where he met councilors from Lilongwe to discuss strategies and challenges facing urban development project implementation.

“There is need to reverse the old mindset of thinking and doing things because without standards, without integrity and without unity of purpose, all the efforts being put in place will amount to nothing,” the President stated.

Chakwera called on the citizens to play their part in developing the city by being law abiding citizens working towards the common goal of ensuring development that lasts.

“We all need to work together to formulate legislation and enforcement of laws that will be crucial fulfilling the strategies put in place for financial management of resources for development which will ensure that Lilongwe city is fit to be called the capital city,” he explained.

Lilongwe City Council, Chief Executive Officer (CEO), John Chome said some of the key projects the council was working on include improving community markets, building a state of the art central market, waste management and road rehabilitation.

“We want to focus on mobilizing private capital particularly through Private Public Partnerships (PPP) as well as development partners to support implementation of projects to transform the city how we want it,” he said.

Chome appealed to government to fast track the initiative to create Municipal Police in cities to help implement by laws.