Bongo Feo (U/E), Sept 23, GNA - The Parliamentary Select Committee on Lands and Forestry on Thursday called on Zoil Services, auxiliary waste management company Zoomlion Limited, to pay wages of their workers in the Upper East Region.

Zoil Service has been contracted by the Ministry of Lands and Forestry Commission to undertake the National Forestation Programme and it in turn recruited workers to carry out the exercise. Mr Albert Abongo, the Member of Parliament for Bongo, said this at separate functions at Tangara and Bongo Feo when he and the committee members visited the sites.

He said it was bad for people to work for more than six months without being paid and added 93this programme is very dear to the government and every attention must be given to the project to ensure that it succeeds." The workers, who are cultivating 700 hectares out of the 800 hectare= s originally targeted, complained of lack of logistics such Wellington boots, rain coats, bicycles and cutlasses.

"About five of my workers have been beaten by snakes because of lack o= f Wellington boots. We also have to commute long distances to the farm and this is affecting our work", Mr Malik Agongo, the supervisor in charge of Bongo Feo community, told the Parliamentary Committee. The Committee assured the workers that their concerns would be addresse= d and urged them to continue to work whilst their concerns were being addressed.

Mr Andrew Adjei=96Yeboah, a Member of the Committee, appealed to the workers to see the project as their own since they stood a good chance of reaping benefits from it.

He told them that it could help them draw firewood and improve upon farming and also reverse the environmental degradation of the area. Mr Adjei=96Yeboah expressed disappointment about the way the programme w= as being implemented by Zoil and said there was the need for the Forestry Commission to review the contract and to make amendments if need be since the government attaches importance to it. The Paramount Chief of Bongo, Baba Salifu Aleemyaruum, commended the government for initiating the programme and said it would help reduce desertification associated with the three northern regions. He said he was also addressing the environmental degradation in the area through his NGO, the 93Green Bongo for Sustainable Development." Baba Salifu Aleemyaruum said he together with sub chiefs had mounted advocacy programmes against desertification and passed by laws on bush burning. He suggested to the Parliamentary Committee to introduce what he called =91Food for Work Programme' in communities to encourage them to engage in= more tree planting.