Techiman (B/A), Nov. 20, GNA - Fifty-five thousand, eight hundred and sixty-three out of the total population of 197,544 of the Techiman municipality have so far registered with the mutual health insurance scheme which took off barely two months ago in the municipality. Mr. Prince Yaw Donyina, Techiman Municipal Chief Executive (MCE)s who disclosed this at the second ordinary meeting of the third assembly of the municipal assembly said the registration represented only 28 per cent of the total population of people in the municipality.

Mr. Donyina said, as at September 12 this year, an amount of 474,306,597 million cedis had been paid to beneficiaries with claims in arrears being processed for payment standing at 498,204,590 million cedis.

He gave the break down of the registered members as 18,378 being the total paid up members, 4,118 SSNIT contributors, 30,174 being children below 18 years, 2,842 being aged and 210 pensioners. Mr. Donyina urged all assemblymembers to join the staff of the scheme to continue to sensitise people in the district on the importance of the insurance scheme.

On the internally generated revenue of the Assembly, Mr. Donyina said, out of the total budget of 2,178,120 billion cedis the Assembly had been able to collect 2,371,957,269 billion cedis representing 108.9 percent.

He said, despite the encouraging performance by the collectors, areas such as rates and rents still fell below expectation and attributed the short fall to lack of accurate data on stalls within the municipality and the Assembly's own property.

Mr. Donyina disclosed that the Assembly's 2006 budget would focus on the development of town and area councils and how they could generate enough revenue, noting that Techiman, Tuobodom and Kwaeso as well as other councils could not perform to expectations in the period under review and advised them to buck up next year.

He therefore, stressed the need for all assembly members to accomplish the mission of the Assembly so that it could improve the quality of life of the people.

He appealed to the assemblymembers to eschew all negative tendencies that could detract them from achieving the noble objectives that had been set for the people in the municipality.

He reiterated the need for the Assemblymembers to be aware of the non-partisan nature of the Assembly and bury all political, ethnic and religious differences and create a congenial atmosphere for each and every individual to live comfortably and harmoniously in the municipality.

Mr. Emmanuel Twi-Yeboah, Presiding Member (PM) of the Assembly asked his colleagues to educate the electorate about the good things the assembly was undertaking in respect of the socio-economic advancement of the municipality. Nov.20 05