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The Ashanti Regional Minister, Mr. Peter Anarfi-Mensah, has warned against pushing minors into illegal gold mining to support household incomes.

Their place, he said, was the school but not the mine pits, adding that everybody, especially parents, must get this right.

Mr. Anarfi-Mensah, addressing a meeting with the chiefs and people of Jacobu, in the Amansie Central District – an area that has been massively invaded by illegal miners, said he found it deeply worrying reports that many children were abandoning the classroom to work for the miners.

He called on all stakeholders to work together and with some urgency to return the kids to school.

The District Chief Executive (DCE), Mr. Emmanuel Dede Appiah, the Member of Parliament (MP), Mr. Emmanuel Akwasi Gyamfi, the clergy and teachers, were among those present.

Mr. Anarfi-Mensah was there to inspect on-going development projects funded by the government to transform the lives of the people and inaugurate a new office built for the Food and Agriculture Ministry and the district police headquarters.

He gave the assurance that the government would continue to make sure that no community was denied its share of development.

Mr. Gyamfi called for firm action to tackle the growing destruction of the area’s vegetation and water bodies through illegal mining operation.

He also complained about the bad nature of roads leading to the cocoa growing communities in the district and asked that priority was given to the rehabilitation of these roads.

The DCE spoke of the progress the assembly was making, particularly, in the areas of environmental sanitation and electricity extension.

Nana Fosu Kwadweabri II, the Jacobuhene, appealed to the Cocobod to open a sales outlet in the town where cocoa farmers could buy farm inputs at reasonable prices.

The present situation where they traveled long distances to Obuasi and Bekwai to procure agro-chemicals was creating a lot of discomfort for them, he added.