Bolgatanga, Sept 8, GNA - Mr Opam Brown Akolbire, the Member of Parliament for the Bolgatanga Central, has appealed to the people of the Upper East Region to participate actively in the upcoming Population and Housing Census.

Speaking during a tour of some parts of his constituency, he said the exercise was crucial for planning national development and as a deprived region data was important for the development of the area.

Mr Akolbire said people should disabuse their minds that the exercise was meant for taxation.

He said projects in areas such as health, education, agriculture and housing were planned through data collected from census.

"Any community that will down play the impending Population and Housing Census scheduled to take place on September 26 will be doing so at its own peril."

He said donors and non-governmental organizations mostly used Population and Housing Census in planning technical and economic assistance and any country that toyed with its population and housing census risked getting aid from donors.

Mr Akolbire said areas that were clamouring for new districts should take advantage of the exercise and that the Electoral Commission relied on population data for demarcation of electoral areas.

He appealed to religious leaders to use their platforms to encourage people to get actively involved in the census.

He appealed to stakeholders particularly traditional authorities to appeal to their people to take part in the exercise.