The Minister for Presidential Affairs and the Chief of Staff, Mr. Kwadwo Mpiani has given directives to the Accra Metropolitan Assembly (AMA) to ensure that, by the end of this February, all mental patients and beggars wandering within the national capital are cleared.

Speaking in an interview with the ADM last week in Accra, Mr. Mpiani who is the Chairman of the National Planning Committee for Ghana @ 50 Celebrations said "We have asked the AMA to make sure they are removed before the end of this month. They have assured us they are going to do that."

Exactly a week from tomorrow, Ghana would be 50 years. A number of Heads of State and other important dignitaries including the Duke of Kent, who would be stepping in for Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II, would be in town to honour the 50th birthday celebrations. Ghana is the first colonial country in the Sub-Saharan Africa to gain independence.

The AMA, Mr Mpiani said, would be working in consultation and collaboration with the Social Welfare Department and the Ministry of Health to undertake the exercise successfully.

The Chief of Staff said the mental patients would be sent to the mental hospitals, but, he envisaged that there might be a bit of problem with the physically challenged beggars on the streets because, "I believe it is a sort of business".

He recounted how some able-bodied persons have organised these physically challenged individuals, and placed them at vantage points to beg for alms. "I have myself witnessed an occasion like that before," he emphasized.

However, he said, measures would be put in place to ensure that their activities are controlled for the smooth celebration of Ghana's 50th anniversary. When ADM contacted the Mr. Ali Baba, Special Assistant to the Chief Executive of the AMA, he confirmed what Mr Kwadwo Mpiani had said, and stated that the AMA is assiduously working on it.

"We will be organizing a swoop on them", he said, "we are now discussing with Pantang and Asylum Down mental hospitals but the cost involved, they are asking as to buy beds, soaps and all other things."

He said by the end of last week consultations would have been concluded and appropriate date set for the swoop, which he said would definitely take place before March 6. On the upkeep of the mental patients and other categories that would be taken off the streets, he said, "The responsibility for taking care of them is with the Ministry of Manpower and Social Welfare, they are directly responsible, we are only to help out because of the impending exercise".

He said three years ago when the AMA carried out such exercise, it cost ¢24 million to keep them in the mental hospitals for two months and were also asked to pay the allowances of the nurses who would take care of them.