Koforidua, June 28, GNA - Mr Alexander Asamoah, the New Juaben Municipal Chief Executive (MCE), said government was still committed to investing in Ghanaians for national development.

He said the Assembly and the Municipal Directorate of Education had distributed a total of 2,750 school uniforms and 221,933 exercise books to all schools in the area. Mr Asamoah, who was addressing the First Ordinary Session of the Sixth Assembly sitting, held in Koforidua at the weekend, said 667 youth have bee= n absorbed into various sectors of the National Youth Employment Programme, t= o fulfil government's Better Ghana agenda. He said government would support children to attain education and skills to reduce the unemployment rate in the Municipality. The MCE commended security forces in the area for ensuring relative peace and order in the area, and promised that the Assembly would continue to assist the Police/Military night patrol teams to fight crime. Mr Asamoah said that the recent cholera outbreak, which claimed two lives out of the 321 reported cases in the Municipality, was put under control by the Assembly in collaboration with the Municipal Health Directorate through public sensitization and sanitation improvement programmes, including disinfection of 830 open wells free of charge. He said that 140,873 persons, representing 83.7 per cent, had registered with the National Health Insurance Scheme, out of the 168,000 population of the Municipality.

The MCE called on assembly members to encourage residents in their respective electoral areas to register with the scheme to ensure that 93in time of illness they would not be too much inconvenienced." He observed that revenue generation by the municipality was improving steadily, saying, as at May 31, this year, GH¢734,817 had been collected, representing 38.6 per cent of this year's revenue estimate. Mr Asamoah, however, appealed to the people pay their taxes promptly and regularly, reminding them that 93it is a civic responsibility for everyone to pay his or her taxes", to enable the Assembly to complete its numerous projects.

Mr Hackman Owusu Agyeman, Member of Parliament for New Juaben North Constituency, called on Assembly Members to unite and create employment avenues for the youth, and should not let party politics to mar their duties.