Friday, April 16, 2010

20 COMMNITIES TO ENJOY POWER...In Sissala East (PAGE 23, APRIL 16, 2010)

TWENTY communities in the Sissala East District in the Upper West Region are to be connected to the national electricity grid under the self-help electrification project by the end of the year.
The beneficiary communities include Ping, Wullu, Chalo, Mwaduonu, Kassana, Nabulu and Pinna.
The Sissala East District Chief Executive (DCE), Madam Alijata Sulemana, said mapping to provide technical aspects of the low tension poles had already been completed.
Madam Sulemana was addressing the first ordinary meeting of the assembly at Tumu.
She said the assembly had also awarded a contract for the rehabilitation of 16 boreholes in a number of communities in the district.
Madam Sulemana said with funding from the Japanese government, two kilometres of the Tumu-Tokrobelle road would be tarred under the district capital roads improvements project while the assembly was bracing itself to construct two police stations at Bugubelle and revive the one at Welembelle.
She said the projects would be carried out based on the final approval from the national headquarters of the Ghana Police Service, after which the Tumu Police Station would be elevated to the status of a divisional headquarters.
Madam Sulemana stressed the determination of the assembly to improve the standard of education.
She stated that with the support of the Ghana Education Trust Fund (GETFund), the assembly was constructing six-unit classroom blocks with stores and other ancillaries each for some communities, including Ping, Kassana and Nabulu.
Commenting on the recent outbreak of Cerebro Spinal Meningitis (CSM), the DCE commended the District Health Management Team for its role in containing the disease, adding that 1,799 students and other members of the public were vaccinated throughout the period.
She also expressed appreciation to Plan Ghana and Action Aid, both non-governmental organisations, for carrying out an intensive public health education on the CSM during the outbreak.
Madam Sulemana was, however, not happy about the frequent smuggling of fuel through the district to neighbouring Burkina Faso, but praised the district security committee for dealing with the situation.
The Deputy Upper West Regional Minister, Mr Caesar Kale, disclosed that 11 out of 19 senior high schools (SHS) in the region would benefit from the government’s policy to construct new classrooms and dormitories to accommodate continuing students.
He urged members of the district assembly to always build consensus in their deliberations since that would be the hallmark of the assembly’s maturity as far as democracy was concerned.
Mr Kale advised the assembly against the over-reliance on the District Assemblies Common Fund (DACF), saying it must strive to strengthen its monitoring mechanisms to halt the leakage associated with revenue mobilisation.
He expressed concern about the indiscriminate siting of projects and called for proper planning of districts as well as the strengthening of statutory town planning committees to ensure effective supervision and monitoring.
Mr Kale further called for total support for the DCE and the assembly in order to achieve the targets of the government.

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