Development must follow proper planning - President Mahama

Kumasi, Oct. 6, GNA - The Seventh Kumasi Metropolitan Assembly (KMA) was on Tuesday inaugurated at a ceremony in Kumasi, with a call on district assemblies to ensure that infrastructural development of their areas followed proper planning.

President John Dramani Mahama, in a speech read on his behalf, said one major challenge impeding development of the nation 'is the unplanned and haphazard development currently going on in most Assemblies.'

'It is nauseating to see slums being developed in marshy areas and houses being built in waterways', he lamented, saying the Town and Country Planning Department, Survey Department and Lands Commission ought to play their respective roles effectively for the right to be done.

President Mahama indicated that these authorities must abide by the rules and regulations of their profession concerning the allocation of plots to ensure that these plots were developed according to their designated land use.

This, he said, was necessary if the country were to avoid the danger of flooding and the accompanying loss of lives and property as being experienced in parts of the country anytime it rained.

The newly-inaugurated assembly, comprising 91 elected and 44 appointed members, as well as the 10 Members of Parliament (MPs) in the metropolis, would be in office for four years.

President Mahama, touching on the degradation of the environment, challenged the Assembly to strive to apply the same enthusiasm with which it had successfully constructed schools and clinics, markets and water supplies, electricity projects and feeder roads, to issues bothering on the environment.

He explained that adequate laws existed to deal with such issues as bush burning, illegal timber felling and mining activities, as well as environmental sanitation, and that it was their duty to supervise, monitor, coordinate and generally ensure that the right thing was done.

'Where your Assembly has environmental problems which are not already covered by law, it is your duty to make appropriate bye-laws and ensure their enforcement,' he noted.

Touching on revenue generation, President Mahama advised the Assembly to find innovative means of generating funds to complement the Common Fund for accelerated socio-economic development.

Oheneba Adusei Poku, Akyempimhene, said the assembly members should work with unity of purpose to achieve their objectives.

Mr. Kojo Bonsu, the Metropolitan Chief Executive, welcomed the members to the Assembly, saying they should show enthusiasm for activities of the Assembly to develop Kumasi to an appreciable standard.

GNA