Akrofrom (B/A) Jan 18, GNA - The Ministry of Women and Children's Affairs' delay in fulfilling its promise to support women at Techiman district with special loans to enable them to expand their businesses dominated questions at the people's assemblies at Akrofrom and Agosa on Friday. Women representatives alleged that in 2002, as part of an agreement to be able to access the loans, women in the district formed groups and members rushed to open bank accounts with rural banks through which the loans were expected to be channelled.

The women complained that, "up to date the Ministry is yet to live up to its word and this is painting the government black in some parts of the communities." They therefore, urged the Brong-Ahafo Regional Minister, Nana Kwadwo Seinti, Mr. Kwadwo Adjei-Darko, Minister of Local Government and Rural Development, Mr. Prince Oduro-Mensah, Member of Parliament (MP) for Techiman West, Mr. Isaac Osei-Antwi, Techiman District Chief Executive (DCE) and the NPP district party executives who formed part of the team to look into the matter.

Responding, Mr. Oduro-Mensah dismissed the allegation by the women, saying he could not remember the NPP, as a party or himself as an aspiring MP, making that promise during the electioneering campaign. He however, noted that long before the President's decision for the people's assembly programme to cover the whole country, he was confronted by some people in his constituency on the issue. The MP announced that the issue had already been made known to President Kufuor who had instituted a special committee to handle it. Mr. Oduro-Mensah therefore, advised the women groups to exercise restraint and wait for the outcome of the committee' work.

Some of the residents expressed concern about the high electricity bills saying that some pay as much as 100,000 cedis a month "even though they use only one bulb for light, without any other electrical appliances." Mr. Peter Kwaku Duah, Techiman District Manager of Volta River Authority, defended the bills, explaining that they were prepared according to the rate at which consumers used electricity power. Nana Seinti advised management of VRA to try as much as possible to provide pre-paid meters to streamline the billing system. Speaking at the meeting Mr Adjei-Darko, noted the democratic and peaceful atmosphere prevailing in the country, pointing out that in the past any governmental invitation of a person to the Castle caused a scare amongst the person's family members.

Mr. Adjei-Darko advised Ghanaians to help sustain democratic rule and not to support any person or group of persons to topple it. Let us all resolve that constitutional government is to be changed by the ballot box and not via military intervention, he stressed.

Mr. Adjei-Darko confirmed the elevation of Techiman district to a municipal status, saying "the Executive Instrument (EI) on it was signed by the President on December 19, last year and what is left is the Ministry to back it with a Legislative Instrument (LI)." The Minister cautioned that the elevation of any geographical set up per se was not an automatic development of people within the area.

The people in the area should team up with the local Assembly to complete development projects and pay their traditional and other levies to enable the Assembly to generate funds to supplement what the central government would allocate to it for development. Mr. Adjei-Darko advised the youth against getting involved in chieftaincy matters.

Earlier, addressing the function, Nana Seinti advised the people to feel free to ask questions to enable the government to know where it was falling short. He commended some communities in the area for protecting their forest against bushfires and urged them to sustain the spirit during the harmattan season.

Mr. Osei-Antwi announced that the District Assembly had within the last three years spent 4,222,916,346 cedis on the construction of markets and lorry parks, 17,657,850,618 cedis on education, 308,675,000 cedis on electricity projects and 1,357,732,229 cedis for construction of office buildings for decentralized departments. The Assembly has also spent 947 million cedis on poverty alleviation, One billion cedis on water and sanitation while 2,017,485,236 cedis was spent on roads.