President Museveni has warned district engineers all over the country over neglecting roads.
Addressing a rally at Ajai sports stadium in Madi-Okollo district on Monday, Museveni said where government has invested in tarmacking, many of them have been neglected by districts that has seen them get into a deplorable state.
“The problem we had previously was that roads were not maintained.Roads are a priority, tarmac roads must be maintained in time and so should be the murram roads. I don’t want to see a murram road with potholes. The station in Moyo and Arua will have to answer,” Museveni said.
He said in some incidents, the murram roads are poorly maintained making them impassable.
“Even when I was coming here, they have just put some grader in the road I passed, maybe, because they knew I was coming. There was no drainage, murram was all done in a hurriedly manner. When it rains water doesn’t flow.”
The NRM presidential candidate asked political leaders to watch out for such roads and report them so that those responsible are disciplined.
“The roads affect everybody. Other programs can wait but we make sure roads are done fast.”
Previously, President Museveni has taken a swipe at the Ministry of Works over failure to maintain roads, like the Mityana-Mubende- Kyenjojo road.
He blamed the ministry for poor planning and trying to do everything at the same time and end up doing nothing properly.
According to the president, roads ought to be maintained routinely to ensure their life span is increased , other than neglecting them and seeing them deteriorate.
Speaking on Monday, the president promised to work on several roads in Madi-Okollo district.
“We had to struggle on roads even when we didn’t have money to bring tarmac to West Nile. All the way from Kampala to Karuma and now Koboko. We now have plans to work on other roads in this area. The Pakwach -Rhino Camp is among roads to be tarmacked but also the one from Nebbi to Zombo to Arua. We are currently working on the Atiak to Adjumani to Moyo through Yumbe to Koboko,” he said.
He also promised to construct new government primary and secondary schools to ensure every parish and sub county has at least one school.
“The government primary schools are 69 and parishes are 46. If we were careful to put in each parish a primary school, each one of them would have. But it seems in planning you have a parish with no primary school yet others have more than two. This should be sorted out at local level,” Museveni said.
“We are constructing a seed school in the six and remaining with only five sub counties.The plan is to have all sub counties with government secondary schools. When you support us, we shall build 8 primary schools in the 14 parishes without primary schools.”
He also promised to upgrade several health centres and construct new ones in the district.
Museveni also didn’t leave the podium without reminding the population about wealth creation.
“We have so far sent shs14 billion for PDM and 13,000 households representing 36% have benefitted. With PDM, you can easily get out of poverty. I am appealing to you to use PDM money to get out of poverty. If you have money in your home you are supporting the country. Even the things you are talking about, the roads and schools , they need money and government gets it from taxes. Consumer taxes are got when you buy cement to build a house, there is some small tax on each bag, when you by sugar, alcohol, bicycle, motorcycle, there fuel on it and on fuel you use. When you don’t have income in your home and don’t buy from shops, you are paralysing us. “
He urged locals to utilise the Parish Development Model cash to join the money economy.
