Kworli residents against creation of Tatale/Sangule District
The Chiefs and people of Kworli, a farming community of about 70,000 residents in the Zabzugu/Tatale District have kicked against the creation of the new Tatale/Sangule District in the Northern Region.
They said they were not consulted during the decision to create the new district and indicated that any document forwarded to any quarters claiming they were consulted should be disregarded because it was false.
The Chiefs and people raised these concerns in a news conference at Kworli on Thursday.
They suggested that any new district that would be created in the area should be located in Kworli for convenience and accessibility, and said that if their demands of relocating the new district to the area could not be met, then they should be left to remain with Tatale District to avoid any inconvenience.
They contended that the population of Tatale/Sangule area was smaller than that of the Kworli Traditional Area, and that Tatale area yielded low weekly revenue compared to Kworli area.
They stated that despite the huge revenue contribution of the area to the District’s revenue, it was the least developed with poor road network, low standard of living and that each year the area was cut off from the rest of the Region for several months due to the lack of good access roads, especially during the rainy season.
The residents indicated that compared to infrastructural development in the Tatale, Zabzugu and Sangule areas, Kworli with more than 63 communities had not been connected to the national grid, thus depriving students from benefiting from ICT lessons which were examinable.
They said there was peaceful co-existence among the ethnic groups in the area but that there was low teacher-pupil ratio in the district which resulted in low enrolment and retention, with none of the 30 existing schools in the District benefiting from the school feeding programme.
The residents, therefore, appealed to the Government to relocate the new district to Kworli to narrow the development gap in education, health, agriculture, infrastructural development to uplift the standard of living of the people.
They also suggested to the Government to involve them in determining the boundaries and names of the newly created districts in the area for the sake of convenience, peace and harmony, noting that the current Zabzugu/Tatale District was made up of many ethnic groups.
Source: GNA