Month: June 2014

As the euphoria for the 2014 FIFA World Cup get stronger, the Member of Parliament for Upper West Akim, Joseph Amankwanor is working assiduously to help communities in his constituency get electricity meters.

He fears most people may be denied opportunity of watching the football matches because they cannot connect electricity to their homes.

Mr. noted that though the communities have been connected to the national electricity grid, its been difficult for the people to ready benefit from it because electricity meters that should make it possible for people to connect have not been distributed.

He said the people are anxious to get light in their homes not only for entertainment but most importantly for business activities.

He announced that through regular follow ups, the Ministry of Energy has approved for meters to be sent to those communities and was still pursuing it until the meters arrive.

Affected communities include Ampofo, parts of Adeiso, Amekrom, Asuakow, and a host of others.

He said his determination to have the project completed is informed by his quest to see increased economic activity in the area which will also help improve living conditions of the residents.

Dominic Shirimori/Ghanamps.gov.gh

The Member of Parliament for the Sissala East constituency, Hon. Sulemana Alijata Gbentie with support from the Assembly yesterday put together some incentive packages to award outstanding teachers locally in the district.

The District’s Best teacher award spearheaded by the MP has specially been set to appreciate hardworking teachers within the area, and to also encourage others to give off their best towards achieving quality education across-board.

The MP interacting with Ghanamps.gov.gh on the essence of this programme reiterated that this was tailored to reflect the NDC government’s manifesto of investing in the people to consolidate sustainable development.

She echoed that teacher motivation was critical to improving quality education, hence the course to institute this important award scheme that will strategically go a long to improve the standard of education in the district. She touted the progressive interventions made by the NDC government to improve the lots of teachers in the country, which includes accommodation, and other forms of incentive package.

Some of the items given out to the teachers included refrigerators, Television set, desktop computers and solar lanterns amongst others.

Also certain second cycle institutions in the district received some donations to help enhance teaching and learning in the beneficiary schools.

The Home Economics Department of the Kanton Senior High School(KANSEC) in the district benefited some set of mixing bowls and sewing machines donated by the MP, whiles the Tumu SECTECH also received welding machines. The St. Clares Vocational school also located in the area obtain sewing machines to help scale up the skills of the students.

Donating the items to the beneficiaries, the MP lauded the enormous contributions of the teachers and urged them to be highly committed to boost the academic laurels in their respective schools.

Jonathan Jeffrey Adjei/Ghanamps.gov.gh

Despite the assurance from President John Dramani Mahama that the days of ‘dumsor-dumsor’ would have been officially over last month, the erratic nature of power supply in the country seems to know no ending.

It appears most local businessmen can no longer trust the president after reneging on his word, asserts an outspoken parliamentarian.

Aside his job as a legislator, Hon. Kennedy Agyapong is also a dealer in frozen foods.

The erratic supply of electricity to his cold store appears to have given him a headache considering the amount of monies he spends to keep in business in spite of the inefficient service being rendered by the Electricity Company of Ghana.

According to him, he has paid close to GHC154,000 to ECG between April and May this year just to continue enjoying their poor services.

“As at September, 2013, I paid 36,000 for my 80,000 volts cold store. then at April, 2014 the bill that came for three cold store-rooms was about GHC 80,000. The bill that followed was GHC74,000. If you should add up the bills for just this two months, it is GHC154, 000”, he calculated.

Speaking to Peace FM, the Assin Central MP reveled that he has reported the matter to the Speaker of Parliament for redress.

“I personally took my electricity bills to parliament and read the amounts out to the speaker. I did this to make him realize the rate at which this current government is collapsing business entities in the country. The use of the automatic system adjustment to determine how much one should pay for electricity isn’t a good practice”, he bemoaned.

Peacefmonline.com

A new police station is to be built at Kwasinyarko in the Upper East Akim District in the Eastern Region to serve Kwasinyarko and surrounding communities.

The project estimated at seventy-five thousand Ghana Cedis is to be financed by the Member of Parliament for the Upper West Akim, Joseph Amankwanor.

According to him, he was compelled to solicit for fund for this project bearing in mind the importance of ensuring proper security in such areas of economic importance.

Mr. Amankwanor said from Nsawam to Adeiso there is no police station to maintain law and order, adding that there is a tomato marketing center around that stretch and the presence of a police station is very important to help protect the traders and all other travelers. He said having a police station will also motivate patrols on the road to reduce armed robbery and other related crimes.

He said population is fast growing and more security measures are needed to ensure the people are well protected.

Dominic Shirimori/Ghanamps.gov.gh

The Member of Parliament for KEEA Stephen Nana Ato Arthur (Dr) has visited about 50 Junior High Schools (JHS) out of 75 in his constituency to interact with the final year students and offer support and also encourage them in their impending examination.

The visit was also to see how the weekend classes he initiated for the various schools in the communities for the final year JHS students was progressing and also assured them that the entire constituency was behind them as they sit for their first major exams of their lives.

According to Hon, Dr Ato Arthur he challenged the students to come out with good grades since he was always ready to give out scholarship to any students who would gain admission into the second cycle schools.

He added that since children would be the future leaders of the country, greater part of the constituency’s development fund would be devoted to improve their education.

Hon Dr. Ato Arthur further urged them to put their trust in God and concentrate on the syllabus from which questions for the examination will be based on.

He also asked them to comport themselves by obeying the invigilators and avoid examination malpractices, which could attract punitive measures from the examining body, which could mar their future efforts to climb the academic ladder.

Afua Yeboah/ghanamps.gov.gh

Information Communication Technology has heavily imparted on many sectors and fields in the world including education which produces the human resource for most countries.

It has also fast tracked teaching and learning and research.

It is in this vain that the Member of Parliament for the Sekyere Afram Plains, Hon. Alex Adomako-Mensah has provided about 17 laptop computers to various schools within his constituency.

The beneficiary schools include Drobonso SDA Cluster of Schools, Drobonso Presbyterian JHS, Drobonso Roman Catholic (RC) JHS and Dagomba DA JHS.

According to the MP the presentation forms part of his initiative to ensure quality education through the teaching and learning of ICT.

The MP said there was no shred of doubt that education was the fulcrum of development and that advancement in the learning of ICT was crucial whilst advising the beneficiary schools to utilize the facilities but ensure its sustainability.

The heads of the beneficiary schools were grateful for the laptops and appealed to the MP and the District Assembly to as a matter of urgency connect them to the national power grid.

GhanaMps.gov.gh

Member of Parliament for Tema East, Titus Glover has said he expects newly assigned deputy minister of Fisheries and Aqua Culture, Sena Okity Duah to exhibit her full potential and deliver her mandate at her new office.

According to him, the deputy minister having the free role to perform at her new position is sure to execute her responsibility to further push the development of the country.

President John Mahama has since last week reshuffled his government with various ministers moving to other ministries while Hon. Akwasi Oppong Fosu, former minister for Local Government and Rural Development and former Deputy Trade and Industry minister Nii Lante Vanderpuye lost their position.

Hon. Sena Okity Duah who served under her boss Nana Oye Lithur Minister of Gender, Children and Social Protection was widely reported not have a good working relationship with both of her deputies, affecting the relationship and work among them.

Hon Nana Oye Lithur is reported to have been discourteous towards her deputy who is also the MP for Ledzokuku when she (Nana Oye) visited the constituency during a LEAP, an act that party executives in the area took a strong exception to. This is one of the several incidents of bad blood among them reported in the media.

Speaking on Adom FM’s Dwaso Nsem Programme on Monday, Hon. Titus Glover stated that he felt very concerned about the treatment being meted to her colleague MP Hon. Okity Duah her former boss Nana Oye Lithur.

He urged the newly nominated deputy minister; Dela Sowah who is to work with Nana Oye Lithur to brace herself up for the task ahead as she assumes her responsibility.

Hon. Titus Glover however advised the Gender Minister put up a good working attitude and take immediate steps to clear the negative public notion which is widely of her.

Ghanamps.gov.gh

The Member of Parliament for the Bekwai Constituency in the Ashanti region, Mr. Joe Osei Owusu has described as irresponsible the demolition of the security post at the Okponglo entrance of the University of Ghana by the National Security Council.

“Are we not using the legal system anymore? I think the conduct of the National Security is truly irresponsible and unbecoming in a national democratic system that we have,” Mr. Osei Owusu said.

The University’s security post was demolished on Monday night by the personnel from the National Security office.

The Office said it had notified the University of its planned demolition but Authorities of the University denied reports that the Coucil officially informed them of its planned demolition

A letter from the National Security office to the University further argued that the structure when completed would create a nuisance to motorists.

The Director of Public Affairs at the University, Madam Stella Amoah however dispelled the notion that the post will create a nuisance.

Speaking on Eyewitness News, Mr. Osei Owusu further criticized the demolition, describing it as a breach of law and order.

In his opinion, the Council is using crude means and methods to have their concerns addressed.

“Let’s assume that there’s a genuine disagreement as to the location, is the National Security actually the agency that will resolve that dispute? And if they are, is the crude use of force the appropriate means by which we can resolve this matter? Is it not a breakdown of law and order?

“We cannot have a country where if I’m stronger than you and I control National Security resources I use force if we disagree,” Mr. Osei Owusu said.

Offering a solution to the problem, he suggested that the Council should have channeled its concerns to a legal body rather than taking the law into its own hands.

Citifmonline.com

Prestea Experimental JHS and Anglican JHS have received four hundred pieces of mathematical sets and three desk top computers from the Member of Parliament Hon. Koffie Francis Adu Blay to aid their quest for higher education in the Prestea Huni Valley constituency.

Mr. Blay said the donation was to reverse the poor results and also make learning of practical work interesting to the students.

According to the MP beyond ensuring quality education in the district, it will help improve the standard of the student in ICT since technology is the order of the day.

These items which worth GH 8200 was funded from his share of the common fund.

Hon. Blay entreated the students to value the support they are receiving and invest time and energy into studying hard to become successful professionals in the future.