Land owners of Wa Polytechnic are agitating for compensation

Wa, July 25, GNA - Members of the Wa Polytechnic Board have expressed concern about the delay in the payment of compensation to landowners whose lands were acquired by government for the establishment of the academic facility.

Professor Jacob Sangsore, Board Chairman said the landowners had started agitating for the payment of the compensation and urged government to honour the payment to save the Polytechnic authorities from any embarrassment. Prof. Sangsore raised the concern during a courtesy call on the Upper West Regional Minister, Mr. Mahmud Khalid, to introduce members of the Board to him and also solicit his support in resolving the problem. The Board Chairman expressed regret that the region has no main export based industry and appealed to students to take advantage of the Polytechnic to develop the economic potentials of the area o benefit the people.

"The Polytechnic must be used as our main export based industry to produce the manpower needs for the technological advancement of the region," he said. He said the mission- based education that involved the study of arts did not help much and pointed out that it was only through technical education that would help the people to come out from poverty. Prof. Sangsore announced that the authorities of the Polytechnic have established an Educational Endowment Fund to support brilliant but needy students and appealed to the people to show commitment to the fund and make it sustainable.

He appealed for residential accommodation for the staff to attract more qualified lecturers to the Polytechnic. Prof. Sangsore called for the proper planning of the Wa township and the management of sanitation to give it a good outlook. Mr. Khalid said the Polytechnic had the tramp card for the industrialisation of the region and advised students to discard the conception that only failures gained admission to the facility. He said the Regional Co-ordinating Council had tasked stakeholders in Town and Country planning to come out with a development plan for Wa to save it from disasters.