Chipata Mayor Sinoya Mwale has challenged the Eastern Provincial administration to desist from interfering with the operations of City Council, saying the two have different responsibilities.

Last week, Eastern province Permanent Secretary, Chanda Kasolo took a swipe at the local authority in the district, saying the council was an irresponsible entity that had failed to carry out is mandate such as garbage collection, and further accused the municipality of frustrating the cleaning exercise aimed at curbing the spread of Cholera.

But in an interview with News Diggers! Mwale said he does not report to the provincial administration, and as such, the office of the permanent secretary needed to allow the council to operate independently.

The Mayor said although he was willing to be corrected when wrong, he expected the provincial administration to respect the fact that he was an elected official who reports to the minister.

“Allow the council to work independently, am not answerable to the provincial administration. Where we are failing let them come in and say that we are failing somewhere. But distinguish these offices, me I am the mayor elected by the people, I can engage the minister,” he said.

And Mwale said the Chipata City Council was not in support of the recent demolition of people’s houses that were said to have been constructed on service lines belonging to Eastern Water and Sewer Company (EWSCo) in some parts of Chipata.

He said that President Edgar Lungu only gave an instruction for people to clean their surroundings which they had implemented and not demolishing their structures.

Mwale questioned were Eastern Water Eastern and Sewerage Company had been all this time to only realise now that some houses had been constructed on top of their service lines.

The Mayor vowed to side with the affected people because he did not want to be part of the destruction to property which was being done in the name of preventing Cholera.