Census vital for improved service delivery - Kasaija

By Ismael Kasooha in Kibaale 

THE minister of state for finance in charge of planning Matia Kasaija has asked Ugandans to actively participate in the forthcoming population census for improved service delivery.

"Government will base on the data collected from the census exercise to allocate resources in different areas so if people are not counted, it will lead to underfunding," said Kasaija.

He said that some people do not take the census exercise seriously arguing that if the data given is incorrect will lead to poor planning for the next 10 years.

"The data that will be collected will help government and other agencies to plan for the next 10 years so if it is inaccurate don’t blame government," said Kasaija.

The National Population and Housing Census is slated to start on August 28, 2014 and will run till September 6, 2014.

The minister said that some districts have been under funded just because of lack of accurate and correct data.

Kasaija said that some health centres receive drugs for a quarter but within the first month they run out of stock due to undetected population explosion.

"As government we hope the census will help us to plan effectively so that our people are served as expected," said Kasaija.

Meanwhile Kasaija launched the census exercise in Kibaale and asked the enumerators and other officials involved in the exercise not to manipulate the exercise so that it is representative of the people and information needed.

"We don’t want manipulated data because this will lead to poor planning and consequently poor service delivery," said Kasaija.

Kasaija was presiding over the 14th anniversary celebrations for Kagadi-Kibaale community radio.

He said that government has invested a lot of money in the exercise so that it is a success and accurate data is collected.

Kasaija appealed to the public to embrace the exercise to enable Uganda have proper planning.

Kasaija challenged media houses to observe and maintain media ethics and desist from misinforming the public.

"Some media houses have decided to mislead the public by misinforming it which is counterproductive," said Kasaija.

He said that some radios have caused conflict between the government and the public for their selfish needs.

In a related development the resident district commissioner Kibaale Samuel Kisembo Araali reminded those who have not registered for National Identity Card to go for registration at sub country level.

"Registration for the National Identity Cards is still ongoing at sub county headquarters so those who missed the first phase should use this opportunity," said Kisembo.