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The third series of town hall meetings organized by the Media Coalition Against Galamsey (MCAG) was held in Kyebi. The Deputy Minister for Information used the occasion to reiterate to the people that the president will find alternative job for them.
Hon Nana Ama Dokuaa Asiamah Agyei in her presentation indicated that, her government is fighting against illegal mining, and as a nation we should all help in the fight.
She then urged all not to sit, watch and pretend all is well.
“Can you image how our environment will look like in the next ten years if will continue this act?, we cannot destroy our land and water bodies just because we want to get rich feed ourselves and families and leave a huge cost on the government to battle with, therefore we should all join hands and help fight illegal mining”, she said.
According to her, the fight against illegal mining is not witch hunting but it’s a fight to protect the future of the nation for generations and generations unborn, stressing that we cannot leave our destiny and that of our dear nation in the hands of illegal miners and that is why His Excellency Nana Addo Dankwa has
The deputy minister then drew the attention of the people that, all the illegal miners do not pay tax to the nation which is not proper in nation building that some section of the work force will pay tax and others will not.
She therefore assured the people that, government has plans for all who will be affected by the campaign within a short period and adviced that illegality is illegality and cannot be justified under any condition. Adding that, illegal miners cannot push the presidency to halt the fight.
In a related development, Kenneth Ashigbey, the Managing Director for Graphics and the convene of the MCAG mentioned that, there are series of training programs to help these miners to engage in proper mining to mitigate the effect on our water bodies and our lands and one such training will look at mining without mercury in the extraction of gold.
Mr Ashigbey further reiterated that, there is going to be a licensing program for excavators with a tracking device to enable proper monitoring of all excavators in the country for work in a particular area where it cannot be moved beyond it operational area.
He also mentioned that there are some powerful personalities in the previous administration and that of this current administration including chiefs and pastors behind these illegal operations and called on the media to do proper investigations to name and shame such people to serve as deterrent.
By: Radio1 News
