Kenyasi (Brong Ahafo) -- Mrs Cecilia Gyan-Amoah, Member of Paliament for Asutifi South, has called on institutions for awareness creation and local government sub-structures to step up the campaign against the spread of buruli ulcer in the district.

She attributed the increase in the disease in Dadiesoaba and Acherensua to the ignorance of the people and their strong adherence to obsolete customs. The MP who made the call at the first ordinary meeting of the Asutifi District Assembly at Kenyasi, appealed to the District Assembly and local government sub-structures to re-double efforts in the campaign to sensitise the people on the need to observe basic environmental hygiene.

Mrs Gyan-Amoah deplored the sudden surge in cocoa stealing in the district and said the perpetrators had moved from stealing the beans to the plucking of pods on farms in the night.

''The government's recent increase in cocoa prices is not meant to encourage theft.'' Michael Nsiah-Agyapong, Asutifi District Chief Executive, announced that the district collected 151.8 million cedis out of its 2002 target of 173.2 million cedis, representing 87.6 per cent.

He urged the assembly members, area councils and heads of departments to institute measures to identify more areas to enable the assembly to strengthen its collection of revenue.

The DCE announced that the district was expected to receive ?3.1bn as its share of the District Assemblies Common Fund for the year 2002 as against the 2001 figure of ?1.76bn.

He reminded the assembly that the size of common fund allocations would depend on how much it would mobilise from its traditional sources. Nsiah-Agyapong appealed to the assembly members to take advantage of the HIPC relief and Social Investment Funds to initiate development projects in their communities.

He lauded the Asutifi District Directorate of Education and two non-governmental organizations, ACTIONAID, Ghana and Integrated Social Development Centre (ISODEC) for their contributions to the promotion of basic education in the District.

Nsiah-Agyapong called for more efforts to improve the district's academic performance "since the overall performance of 81.6 per cent in last year's Basic Education Certificate Examination cannot be regarded as the ultimate".

The DCE advised the people to guard against bushfires by mounting voluntary surveillance and to report fire starters to the law enforcement agencies for prosecution.

He reminded the people of the spread of the HIV/AIDS scourge and said the assembly had presented an action plan on the virus and information on 19 community-based and two non-governmental organizations to the Ghana Aids Commission for consideration to make them undertake a vigorous campaign against the spread of the virus.