President Yoweri Museveni continues to hit back at people who are deliberately sabotaging government projects.
Featuring on Baba FM in Jinja Municipality on Tuesday, to further his Land Act campaigns, Museveni among other things clarified the right of government to use land for development.
“Government has the right to use the land for development purposes upon fair compensation. This is after the Chief Valuer for government has determined the price,” he explained.
But the President revealed that he was not happy with government officials who after learning about government plans use it to their advantage to gain from them while the government is losing.
“He castigated government officials who, by virtue of their positions, knew of government plans on the establishment of development projects, went and bought land cheaply and afterwards demanded huge compensation,” reads a statement from State House.
Regarding issues that are affecting Busoga Sub-Region, the President said that government is in the process of enacting a sugar policy that will prohibit individuals with less than 5 acres of land to grow sugar cane.
Those that have more than 6 acres of land, he added, would be allowed to practice the four-acre model of producing fruits, tending to grass for dairy purposes, coffee as well as food cultivation so that they use the remaining 2 acres for sugarcane growing.
On unemployment, Museveni informed the youth that government is moving to address the issue.
He said funds are being channeled into the five areas of job and wealth creation namely Information Communication Technology (ICT), enhancement of the services sector, farming, industrialization and Civil Service.
All that the young people needed to do, he observed, is to find a way of fixing themselves in any one of the sectors.
“In Northern Uganda in Amuru district, Madhavani wanted to start a sugar factory but it is ten years now and nothing has happened. The people that are poor are the ones fighting the establishment of these factories. One of the members of the opposition asked me why I was fighting to put the factory there. He didn’t know that I was for employment of the youths,”said Museveni.
He also informed the people of the government intentions to start irrigation projects, like the one in Doho, in order to fight drought in the country.
He also urged them to protect the environment and ensure that the swamps are not destroyed and only harness them in such a way that they are preserved and used responsibly to get some earnings without causing their death.
“The issue is not chasing people out of the swamps because my father and I used swamps to feed our cattle. The issue is the way the swamps are used. If you use one acre to grow rice, in a year you will get Shs.2.8 million yet in a 10 to 50 meters area for fish farming, you can get Shs.30 million,” he advised.
The President also promised the people of Busoga that government has plans of tarmacking the main five remaining roads in their Sub-Region.
These include; Jinja – Budondo; Kamuli – Kyoga; Iganga – Luwuka and Kaliro – Kamuli roads.