AMA has interest of residents at heart – Assembly Members
Members of the Accra Metropolitan Assembly (AMA) on Thursday said all activities undertaken by the assembly are in the best interest of residents.
“We admit that some of these actions by the AMA could inconvenience the dwellers but they need to be under taken to make the capital cleaner, safer, healthier and stress free”, Mr. Isaac Bright Assah , AMA Spokesperson , said at a press conference in Accra.
The press conference comes in the wake of recent demolition of structures in the Metropolis which some residents have vehemently criticized as a breach of their human rights.
However, members say this has become necessary due to the gross indiscipline which has bedeviled Accra recently; the severe flooding that hit the city, the attendant deaths and loss of property due to citing of authorized structures in waterways, wrongful placement of structures, dumping of refuse into drains, littering among others.
The AMA, according to Mr Assah, was established by statutes to initiate developmental programmes aimed at improving the living conditions of the people and also to turn Accra into a modern city and the gateway to Africa as well as put in place measures to meet the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs).
Citing the fire that gutted parts of Odawna area near the Kwame Nkrumah Circle called ECOMOG which was believed to be caused by a gas explosion, he said the inferno disrupted the high tension power supply to some parts of the capital and that there was the need for the demolition to save lives.
“The AMA is resolute in its commitment to protect lives and property, the spokesperson said, and noted that the demolition at ECOMOG was to ensure that dwellers are not endangered.
He stressed that the demolition was a collective decision of the Assembly through its Works and Environment sub committees and not a unilateral one by the Mayor Alfred Vanderpuije.
The new Accra (the millennium city) is to see an end of slum development whiles existing slums are upgraded, he said, and added, these initiatives would affect some people but called for cooperation.
On the achievements of the AMA under the current mayor, the assembly members claimed that Accra had improved from the status of the “dirtiest city to one of the cleanest in Africa”, and erected 2000 street lights throughout the Metropolis to improve security in the localities.
More than 25O projects including 58 toilets for schools, hospitals and communities have been completed with the construction of a liquid waste treatment at Legon scheduled to be completed next month, he said.
In the area of education, he said, “We have ended the shift system and are building 38 millennium city schools and supplied 17,000 dual desks to AMA basic schools.
“The list is endless but suffices it to say, people must obey the sanitation bye laws, acquire requisite permit before embarking on any construction, and desist from building in unauthorized areas and placement of containers at unproved sites. We must endeavour to do the right thing to avoid sanctions.
“We must say that AMA’s development initiatives in the last three years are unparalleled in the annals of the Assembly, he said, adding that the AMA would not relent in its efforts to bring developments to Accra.
Presiding Member of the Assembly, Mr Desmond Addo Biney, expressed his displeasure at the Convention People’s Party youths who were demonstrating at the time of the press conference for the removal of the Mayor despite the successes the AMA had chalked under his leadership.
Source: GNA