Kwabena Okyere Darko-Mensah
The Western Regional Minister, Kwabena Okyere Darko-Mensah, has bemoaned the fact that illegal mining activities, also called galamsey, are still ongoing in certain parts of the region in spite of the government’s effort to curb the menace.
“Galamsey
activities have still not stopped in the Tarkwa, Wassa Akropong, Mpohor, Wassa
Manso areas of this region to the extent that a galamsey mining pit caved in
and killed six operators at Wassa Manso in the Mpohor District last Thursday,”
he disclosed.
He, therefore,
charged all the metropolitan, municipal and district chief executives (MMDCEs)
in the region to ensure that they enforce the by-laws to stop galamsey
activities in their respective areas without any further delay.
Mr. Darko-Mensah
said the assemblies should rather collaborate with the chiefs, the anti-illegal
mining taskforce, the Operation Vanguard team and the Minerals Commission to
see to the effective implementation of the community mining scheme in their
mining communities, so that there would be responsible and sustainable mining
in the country.
1D1F
He pointed out
that the ‘One District One Factory’ secretariat had approved 24 projects to be
rolled out in the MMDAs, with major success story being the KEDA Ceramics
Factory in the Shama District.
Free SHS
He added that
the Free Senior High School (SHS) policy is not only a game-changer so far as
advancement of the nation is concerned, but also “an equalising factor in the
social setting.”
Mr. Darko-Mensah
mentioned that to help ease pressure on the existing facilities due to the
increased enrolment, government under the Ghana Education Trust Fund (GETFund) has
awarded a total of 28 school projects made up of 11 dormitories, 14 classroom
blocks, a dining hall and two toilet facilities across the region.
Kidnapped Girls
The minister
told the participants that the issue of the kidnapped girls in the Sekondi-Takoradi
Metropolis remains a top security priority for the Regional Coordinating
Council (RCC).
According to
him, but for the kidnapping of the three girls and the attack on the Omanhene
of Lower Dixcove, Nana Kwasi Agyemang IX, the security situation in the region
would have been described as calm.
“The Regional
Security Council (REGSEC) and the security services are, therefore,
relentlessly at work to locate the whereabouts of the kidnapped girls and to
hopefully re-unite them with their families,” he stated.
From Emmanuel Opoku, Takoradi
