NATIONAL
The Permanent Secretary, Ministry of Local Government (MoLG), Ben Kumumanya, has challenged town clerks to raise the development levels of former municipalities to reflect their status as cities.
“The difference should be clear, in terms of planning and infrastructure development, cleanliness and general service delivery.” he said.
In response, the Town Clerks agreed to enact bylaws to ensure that the owners of the building’s cleanup their properties, pave walk ways and plant trees or flowers to beautify the cities and reduce the dust. This will be part of their corporate social responsibility.
During the meeting held at MoLG Headquarters last week, Ben Kumumanya directed the Town Clerks to use part of the local revenue collected to repair street lights, buy garbage collection trucks and solve other community challenges.
Since July, 2020, 10 cities have been created under the decentralisation policy, to decongest Kampala city and bring services nearer to the people. These are FortPortal, Mbarara, Masaka, Arua, Jinja, Mbale, Hoima, Gulu, Lira and Soroti.
These cities provide a platform for entrepreneurship, innovation and other economic activities which has improved household income. In line with pillar 7 of the Parish Development Model (PDM), the Ministry of Local Government through the different local government structures is responsible for coordination and technical support to ensure that the funds reach the intended recipients.
The Town Clerks retaliated their commitment in ensuring that all PDM funds are disbursed on time to enable the people to join the money economy and use the markets that have been constructed under the Markets and Agricultural Trade Improvement Programme project (MATIP-2).
Kumumanya in his closing remarks, encouraged the town clerks to publicize the opportunities available in cities for people interested in investing, for example Fort Portal, a tourism city has opportunities for hotels, accommodation and agriculture products to feed the increasing population.
