Offinso, (Ash), June 16, GNA - Dr Kwaku Agyemang Mensah, the Ashanti Regional Minister, has appealed to metropolitan, municipal and district assemblies in the region to strive to keep balance in the distribution of development projects to help to reduce tension and agitations among the people. He said it was important to ensure fair and evenly geographical spread of projects and allocation of resources to benefit all communities irrespective of political, ethnic, religious and economic status and affiliation.

Dr Agyemang-Mensah said this at a meeting with assembly members and heads of departments in the Offinso South Municipality at the start of an official tour of the area. He advised against politicization of issues at the district assemblies and said that could impede development. He reminded the assemblies of their responsibility to bring progress to the people and said to do this they needed to adopt innovative strategies t= o generate more revenue internally to fund their development agenda. The Regional Minister also urged them to step up efforts at promoting environmental sanitation to prevent diseases. Baffour Kesse Amankwaa, Municipal Chief Executive, called for unity and cooperation to speed up the socio-economic development of the municipality. He gave the assurance that the assembly would work hard to transform th= e lives of the people.

The Regional Minister later inaugurated a block of three classrooms for the Maase R/C Junior High School (JHS) and inspected work on two other school projects for the Kokote State 93A" primary and Brekum D/A Primary= , funded by the Ghana Education Trust Fund (GETFund). Earlier, Nana Wiafe Akenten IV, Paramount Chief of Offinso, pledged the support of the chiefs and people in the area to the development efforts of the government. Speaking at a meeting with the Regional Minister in his palace, he said the traditional council would collaborate with the government to improve th= e living conditions of the people.