Less than 24 hours after President Hosni Mubarak instructed the government to devise easy and transparent rules for the sale and purchase of state-owned land, Agriculture Minister Amin Abaza announced Tuesday that state-owned land will be offered only on a usufruct (leasehold) basis.
The minister also warned against transforming state-owned land along the Cairo-Alexandria desert road into tourist resorts, and ordered that squatters who have settled on state-owned land since 2006 must pay rent.
He further said that state landowners who have built housing units on their farmland will be charged extra fees per square meter.
Meanwhile, Irrigation Minister Mohamed Allam said a new draft law banning the use of underground water to create artificial lakes in tourist resorts has been presented to the Council of Ministers for approval. The goal of the draft law is for underground water to be used only for irrigation purposes.
Translated from the Arabic Edition.
