Accra, Feb. 27, GNA - The Denkyira Traditional Council has appealed to the Government to give back lands of the collapsed Dunkwa Continental Goldfields to the people for small-scale mining operations. This, the Chiefs said, was necessary to help create jobs for the area's large army of unemployed youth and revive its declining economy.

They made the appeal when a delegation of the Traditional Council led by its President, Odeefuo Boa-Amponsem III, paid a courtesy call on President John Agyekum Kufuor at the Castle, Osu, on Tuesday.

The Chiefs had called to inform him about the Council's decision to immortalise three of its distinguished citizens for the outstanding contribution made to the socio-economic and political development of the Denkyira state and the country with statues.

They are Nana Kwadwo Tsibo, one of the signatories to the Bond of 1844, Nana Owusu Bore, a late Chief of the area, and the reigning Omanhene, Odeefuo Boa-Amponsem.

The statues would be unveiled in June this year, and they extended an invitation to President Kufuor to grace the event. Nana Kwame Kumah, Chief of Mbradan, who was the Spokesman, made additional demands including the establishment of a Nurses Training College at Dunkwa and a Cultural Village at Dwokwaa on the Government. He conveyed the gratefulness of the Council to the President for the number of development projects they have benefited from, mentioning among them, the supply of electricity, improved structures at the Dunkwa Government Hospital, Diaso Secondary/Technical and the Boamponsem Secondary Schools.

Besides, he said the school feeding programme and free bus service for school children had brought enormous relief to them. President Kufuor, responding to the appeal said, the Government through the Mines Ministry would carefully look at the possibility of getting at least, part of the land of the collapsed Mines for legitimate small-scale mining to give employment to the youth.

The request for the establishment of a Nurses Training College was something that would also be given serious attention.

He said it was the policy of the Government to ensure that no part of the country was denied its fair share of development. President Kufuor lauded the Council for the initiative to honour its citizens who had served the area and their nation with distinction.