By Prince Acquah
Cape Coast, Aug 27, GNA – Mrs Justina Marigold Assan, the Central Regional Minister, has charged Metropolitan, Municipal and District Chief Executives (MMDCEs) to collaborate with their Presiding Members (PM) to expedite development.
She said the work of MMDCEs would be made far easier if they respected and treated their PMs as deputies irrespective of their political affiliations.
“I have worked with several of them, not necessarily somebody from my party. Even when they were coming in, the perception was that they were in to disturb me.
“But I had it so smooth with them because of the relationship I got with them,” she encouraged.
The Minister made the admonition at the Central Regional Coordinating Council meeting (CRCC).
The meeting took stock of the state of affairs across various sectors including education, security, health, agriculture, and road safety and devised means of solving identified challenges.
Mrs Assan intimated that the region was largely peaceful but urged the security agencies and traditional authorities to step up their roles in sustaining it.
She, however, observed that the region continued to grapple with illegal mining, chieftaincy disputes as well and some heinous crimes, particularly within the Assin enclave and Kasoa and its environs.
She appealed to the Regional House of Chiefs to intensify collaboration with the Regional Security Council to work in concert to mitigate the situation.
Mrs Assan also raised concerns about the poor sanitation situation in the region, cautioning that it did not augur well for tourism and investment in the Area and entreated the assemblies to dutifully follow the schedules prepared by the Regional Health Directorate to ensure proper sanitation.
The Regional Minister further expressed excitement about the discovery of Lithium in the region and stressed the need for the region to strategically position itself to reap the full benefit of the mineral.
She said the RCC would set up a committee of diverse experts to closely monitor the lithium project to ensure the region and the country were not short-changed.
GNA