The People?s National Convention (PNC) has made a clarion call on the New Patriotic Party (NPP) administration to reduce the rhetoric and take immediate and practical steps to arrest the decline in the living standards of the people.

"What President J.A. Kufour said last Thursday in his State of the Nation Address amounted to a catalogue of the issues he has raised before and, therefore, there was not much by way of substance that was entirely new," the PNC stressed.

Mr Gabriel Pwamang, the General Secretary of the PNC, was shedding light on the party?s position on the President?s State of the Nation Address in an interview at the party?s headquarters in Accra on Friday.

According to the PNC General Secretary, in a similar address last year, President Kufuor promised Ghanaians that they would, before the end of the year, begin to feel the effects or benefits of the positive change the NPP administration had espoused.

"Has this positive change manifested in the lives of the people, even now as we speak?

?On the contrary, the conditions of life of the people have worsened as the cost of living has spiralled, the cedi has further depreciated and the value of wages and salaries has also progressively declined," the PNC official stressed.

Mr Pwamang pointed out that the recent hikes in petroleum prices to over 90 per cent and previous hikes in utilities and other tariffs have contributed to raise the cost of living and make life more difficult for the people.

"Rather than indulge in more promises or continue to spell out what the government intends to do, the government should sit up and take concrete and urgent measures to deal with these problems as well as potential crises, such as the looming threat of war in Iraq and its consequences on oil supply and prices, in order for the nation to be able to withstand external shocks on our fragile and neo-colonial economy," he stressed.

Mr Pwamang called on the government to promptly address the legitimate demands and concerns of workers to motivate them to be more productive to create more wealth and move the nation forward.

?Paying workers decent wages will not only enhance their conditions of living but also help to create and sustain a peaceful industrial atmosphere that is needed for wealth-creation and investments for accelerated economic development in the country,? he said.

The PNC General Secretary commended the government for its commitment to improve the country?s infrastructural network but urged that speed and a sense of urgency be injected into its execution since most of them are behind schedule.

On the mass transportation system, he said that even though the idea is laudable, the rather limited number of buses in the system and the fact that they operate only in a few urban centres and only along some designated routes makes their effect very minimal.

On the Dagbon and other crises in the country, Mr Pwamang said, ?The government should play a true fatherly role, listen to the aggrieved and act to ensure that justice is done and seen to be done. The government should display greater maturity, transparency and even-handedness to win the confidence of all and thus facilitate peace and reconciliation in these troubled areas,? he said.

The PNC General Secretary also called on the government to consider restoring subsidies to agricultural inputs.

This, he said, will help accelerate food and cash crop production, provide a steady supply of raw materials for agro-based industries and make food and cash crops readily available and cheap for domestic consumption and for export to earn more foreign exchange for the nation.

Mr Pwamang also expressed the PNC?s misgivings about what he called ?the slackening commitment of the government to its zero tolerance for corruption ideal? and called for action to deal transparently with matters of the state in order to win the trust and confidence of the people to get all to embrace the message of sacrifice that government is preaching.