Ashaiman (Tema), April 15, GNA - Constituents of Ashaiman constituency on Thursday commended their Member of Parliament (MP) Mr Alfred Kwame Nyale Agbesi for his transparency and being the first ever MP to meet with them on development of the area.

Mr Agbesi held the first ever mini People's Assembly to convey parliamentary proceedings with a view to collectively find solutions to developmental problems in the constituency to improve the lives of the people.

Pertinent issues that came up during the open forum bordered on sanitation, education, demolition of unauthorised structures, allocation of market stalls to traders, encroachment of playing fields and the refund of proceeds of toilet fees by the Tema Municipal Assembly (TMA) to residents of Ashaiman.

In his maiden briefing, Mr Agbesi called on the people to bury their political differences to forge ahead and champion the course towards a common goal of developing the area.

He entreated the residents to pay their various levies and refuse fees promptly to ensure quality services and advised against indiscriminate dumping of refuse in the town.

To ensure healthy environment, the MP impressed on landlords and ladies to always provide places of convenience in their houses and warned those who contravened that, they would be dealt with by the TMA, and reminded them that the bye-laws on stray animals were also in force. On the demolition exercise, Mr Agbesi said though appropriate, it should be carried out with human face and new places allocated for the displaced traders to enable them earn a living.

The residents however, called on the TMA to refund a total amount of 440 million cedis being proceeds of public toilet, which it confiscated when it took over the management of public toilets in the area.

They also called for the enforcement of the bye-laws on encroachment of playing fields, construction of accessible roads in the communities, while the traders among them appealed to the government to import cargo trucks to convey food stuffs from the hinterland to the cities.

They called on the ruling New Patriotic Party government not to take advantage of their numerical strength in parliament to oppose policies that would promote progress.