Lambussie (U/W), April 30, GNA - Mr. Caesar Kale, the Deputy Upper West Regional Minister, has said government was pursuing programmes in agriculture, education and health as well as youth development. He said government would strengthen the block farming project in all the nine districts in the region with the establishment of mechanisation centres to make tractor services available and affordable to farmers. Farmers would also be encouraged to buy tractors to augment those at mechanisation centres.

Mr. Kale said this when he addressed members of the Lambussie/Karni District Assembly at its first ordinary session at Lambussie on Thursday. On education, Mr. Kale said the first batch of free school uniform had been dispatched to deprived districts of which the Lambussie/Karni District is a beneficiary. Mr. Kale said each of the districts in the region would benefit from six unit classroom blocks with other ancillary facilities under the GETFund first phase of the schools under trees and basic schools rehabilitation package. He said two communities, Zumara and Suggo in the district, would benefit from the package to promote quality teaching and learning in those schools. Government would also continue to expand the Community Health Planning Services (CHPS) compounds to provide the healthcare services to the people in the district. To that end, nine CHPS compounds had been earmarked for construction. Mr. Kale commended the district assembly for sponsoring 42 health trainees this year.

Mr. Clement B. Benin, Lambussie/Karni District Chief Executive, said the assembly had been able to generate 36,237.65 Ghana cedis as internally, representing 45 per cent of the annual estimate of 79,300.00 as at the end of the first quarter of the year. He said the improvement in the revenue mobilisation had come about as a result of reinvigoration of the revenue taskforce, the introduction of stickers for all categories of vehicles and some investment drive initiated by the assembly.

He said the assembly had received 250,000.00 Ghana Cedis from the District Wide Assistance Project (DWAP) which had been used in providing four unit classroom blocks at Piina Senior High School, a Police Station at Lambussie and a CHPS compound at Kulkarni. The Community Based Rural Development Programme (CBRDP) had also provided 80,130.23 to support the assembly to contract the services of a drilling firm to complete works on 13 boreholes which were abandoned. Mr. Benin said farmers would cultivate 150 acres of maize and 55 acres of sorghum under the Block Farming Project while 55 acres of maize and 75 acres of sorghum would also be cultivated under the Northern Rural Growth Programme. On the National Forest Plantations Development Programme, Mr. Benin said the district assembly had acquired 300 acres of land to plant various species of trees. He said 300 people are to be employed and out of the number, 100 of them would be engaged in the existing reserves and the remaining 200 in the new ones to be established.