Minister Calls For Calm In Upper East

Differences are normal and must be used as catalyst for development and not for destruction, Upper East Regional Minister, Dr Ephraim Avea Nsoh, has said. Addressing the Bolgatanga Municipal Assembly, he told the Assembly members that as frontiers of development, they should not allow their political differences to influence them negatively when it comes to development issues. �Let us all bury our political differences and think about the people we serve particularly our children and women in our constituencies who are the most vulnerable and need more development and support to alleviate their plight�, Dr Nsoh said. He expressed his dissatisfaction about the slow pace of development and the poor manner in which some projects were being executed in the Municipality and mentioned the Rural Electrification Project (REP), the Sustainable Water and Sanitation Project and the Persons With Disability (PWD) Fund as some of the examples. Dr Nsoh said he was worried about the delay in the execution of the REP and that funds had been provided for the project and wondered why its execution was so slow. He said more communities in the Upper West Region had been hooked to the national grid under the REP and wondered why the Assembly members in the Region who were the frontiers of development should sit down to allow the contractor to delay the project. Another area the Regional Minister mentioned as one of the challenges facing the Region was the poor sanitation in the Municipality and unplanned layouts and called on the Assembly to ensure that physical structures which were not cited at proper place were removed. He mentioned kiosks, signboards and improper packing as some of the factors that cause road accidents and floods in the area and blamed the officials of the Lands Department for giving such persons permit. Dr Nsoh said plans were far advanced to open up access roads in the Municipality and to maintain more roads.