Tema, Oct 08, GNA - The Member of Parliament for Ashaiman, Mr Alfred Agbesi, on Monday appealed to President John Agyekum Kufuor to upgrade the constituency into a district or municipal status to enable it to get social amenities. Mr Agbesi said in a statement he issued in Tema that the 2000 population census put Ashaiman's population at 150,000 while that of Tema was 75,000.

He said even though Ashaiman was under the Tema Municipal Assembly (TMA), it had failed to provide some essential amenities in the constituency. "The administration, planning and development of Ashaiman are a mess. The solution lies in granting Ashaiman autonomy as TMA continues to site lack of funds as an excuse".

The Ashaiman MP said his constituents had lost confidence in the administration of the TMA. He said contracts awarded for the tarring of roads as well as a 16 billion-cedi contract to dredge the Gbemi stream have been abandoned by the assembly.

Mr Agbesi said the highly populated constituency has only one health centre, a day secondary school and a library that has been turned into a zonal council building. He said the Deputy Minister of Local Government and Rural Development, Mr Maxwell Kofi Jumah, had suggested that due to the huge population of Ashaiman, it needed its autonomy to generate funds to cater for its needs. The statement said Mr Jumah gave the suggestion on September 06 when he addressed displaced hawkers at the Ashaiman market after the TMA had carried out a decongestion exercise at the main market.