OSAKA -- Three land plots bought for 740 million yen by a land development corporation in Kumatori, Osaka Prefecture, remain idle with no development plans in the works, following the failure of a number of public works programs authorized by the prefectural government, it was learned Sept. 29.
The land was to be used as the site for new welfare facilities. Local authorities have been under fire for acquiring land through land development corporations because local assemblies cannot check the purchases. Members of the Kumatori Municipal Assembly plan to ask the Kumatori Municipal Government, which provided purchase funds to the land development corporation, to audit this financing project.
According to sources concerned, the three plots, totaling 39 million sq. meters, were purchased by the land development corporation for a general health-welfare center and other projects from July 1992 through March 1996. The projects were authorized by the municipal government around the purchase dates. A portion of the land designated for the general health-welfare center rests on a steep slope and has no transportation access.