Kpikpira (UE), March 2, GNA - The Garu-Tempane District in the Upper East Region would soon get a District Hospital, the Member of Parliament (MP) for the area, Mr Dominic Azimbe Azumah has announced. The planning process is completed and the project would commence within the first quarter of the year.

The MP was speaking at Kpikpira near Garu at the weekend during the celebration of the Danjur Festival celebrated by the chiefs and people of the Bimoba Traditional Area. He said the hospital, when completed would help offset the problem of referring patients to the Bawku Hospital which was very far from the area. "Additionally, about 50 communities in the District are to benefit from the rural electrification project which is about to start. When completed it would help improve the livelihoods of the people", he said.

Mr Azumah said plans were also far advanced by the Ministry of Education to upgrade the Garu-Tempane Senior High School to a boarding status and noted that when this was done it would curtail the long distances students commuted to school daily. The MP commended the Chiefs and people of the Bimoba area for maintaining the peace and expressed the hope that the people of Bawku who were their neighbours would consolidate the relative peace that now prevailed there.

"You should make it a point to contribute individually and collectively to the peace process in Bawku since you intermarry and are in relationships with them", Mr Azumah stressed. The MP also commended the Bawku Traditional Council, the Inter-Ethnic Peace Committee and all stakeholders who had contributed in diverse ways for the relative peace in Bawku and appealed to them to continue with their good works. He contributed GHc2,000 to the Bimoba Education Endowment Fund and entreated the people to place a high premium on the education of their children.

The Upper East Deputy Regional Minister, Mrs Lucy Awuni said government had put in place several programmes including the Savannah Accelerated Development Authority aimed at addressing the developmental gap between the North and the South. She called on the people in the area to place a premium on girl child education, saying it was one of the major problems in the Region.

Mr David Adakurugu, Garu-Tempane District Chief Executive, said government had earmarked a number of communities in the District for the construction of dams, of which the Bimoba area would also benefit. He said government had realized that about 70 per cent of the people in the country were farmers and that was why it provided subsidies on fertilizer and other farm inputs to support them. He said the District Assembly had provided motorbikes for the security agencies to crack down on criminals in the area and noted that it had helped in the reduction of criminal activities such as the snatching of motorbikes by thieves. He also contributed GHc2,000 to the Bimoba Education Endowment Fund. The Regent of Kpikpira, Dana Kulbong Damre, advised the people not to allow politics to divide them and appealed to government to bring more development projects to the area. The Regent also renewed his call for the inclusion of the Moar language spoken by the people of the area, on the URA Radio FM station in the Region.