Govt to ensure its policies benefited the ordinary person

Krobo-Odumase, April 13, GNA - Mr Yaw Barimah, the Eastern Regional Minister, has said the government would ensure that every policy it initiated would lead to an improvement in the lot of the ordinary Ghanaian.

"The government is aware that the wish of every Ghanaian is for the country to be a better place worth living in. It will therefore exercise power in a manner consistent with the wishes of the people of Ghana", he said.

Addressing a People's Assembly held at Krobo-Odumase in the Manya-Krobo District on Tuesday, he explained that the petroleum deregulation policy was to allow competition in the sale of fuel and this could lead to a reduction in its price.

He refuted rumours that the government wanted to leave the sale of fuel in private companies who would charge exorbitant prices. "It is rather to prove to sceptics that the government is not selling fuel more than the necessary price."

Mr Barimah said though the private sector would lift the oil and sell it at their own prices, the government would ensure that the prices were reasonably within the reach of the people.

Participants at the forum appealed to the Minster to check the unapproved fares being charged by drivers in the district due to the fuel increase and the issue of overloading.

The Minister responded that the government would make appropriate arrangements to cushion the travelling public against the fuel price increase.

He told Mr Andrews Teye, the acting District Chief Executive, to meet the leadership of the drivers to resolve the impasse or they would be made to face sanctions.

Mr Barimah said his administration would not allow people to take the law into their hands to exploit innocent persons to make the government unpopular.

"I expect that any anomaly be resolved soon as people can not do what they like", he stressed.

Mr Teye said the government, in his bid to improve the standard of education, had absorbed the fees of basic education for all children. He said the offer was one of the numerous measures the government had taken to cushion Ghanaians on the impact of the fuel price increment and assured them of better things to come to improve their standard of living.