'Interact With Electorates For Development' - DCE

Assembly members have been urged to constantly be in touch with the people in their electoral areas to let them know what their various assemblies are doing to improve their living standards.

They should also interact with them to bring their views to bear on deliberations on the floor of the assemblies.

The District Chief Executive (DCE) for Tano South, Mr Bukari Zakari Anaba, said that at the third ordinary meeting of the district assembly at Bechem, the district capital, and called for consensus building and collaboration among assembly members to collectively discharge their duties efficiently and serve the interest of the people whom they were representing.

This, he said, was the essence of decentralisation and democracy which was aimed at pushing the socio-economic development of their various electoral areas further.

Mr Anaba expressed his gratitude to the assembly members for their support and cooperation which had enabled the assembly to pursue its programmes and activities planned for the year to improve the lot of the people.

Mr Anaba also mentioned some of the new projects to be initiated by the assembly as the construction of 40 market unit stalls at Derma, gravelling of four kilometre (Km) Bechem town roads to open up the district capital, construction of three-unit staff quarters for the Presbyterian Senior High School at Techimantia, with funding from the District Development Fund (DDF) and District Assembly Common Fund (DACF), respectively.

He also mentioned some of the on-going projects being financed with funds from the DACF as the construction of a wall and inner perimeter, dressing room and VIP stand at the Bechem Mini Sports Stadium, water and power supply at the stadium and the drilling and construction of four boreholes at Kpetigo, Achiase, Kwakufikrom and Tweapease.

On revenue mobilisation by the assembly, Mr Anaba said it had been on a low side and therefore called on the assembly members to come up with strategies to improve on revenue generation by the assembly.

He said the chiefs and people of the Bechem Traditional Area celebrated their maiden Adekyem festival which attracted a number of dignitaries, including the Asantehene, Otumfuo Osei Tutu II, to the grand durbar to climax the festival during which an education endowment fund was established. He also gave an assurance that the assembly would contribute to the fund, aside the assembly’s existing scholarship scheme to support needy, brilliant students.

Mr Anaba also appealed to the assembly members to lead the crusade to prevent bushfires in their respective electoral areas during the harmattan season and encourage people to report those who set fire to burn bushes for the law to deal with them.

The Presiding Member of the Assembly, Mr Anthony Opoku, for his part, appealed to the assembly members to exercise restraint since they would soon receive motorbikes from the government to facilitate their movement, adding that 11 out of the 22 municipal and district assemblies in the region have so far received their motorbikes and the Tano South Assembly members are next to get theirs.