Neglect of rural development worrying – Minority

The Minority NPP Caucus in Parliament has described as worrying the over concentration of government’s attention on local governance much to the detriment of rural development.

The situation, they contend, has brought poverty levels in the rural communities to an all time high, compelling the rural folks to migrate in droves to urban communities.

Minority Spokesperson on Local Government, Kwesi Ameyaw Kyeremeh, who addressed journalists on Thursday over the state of the local government sector and decentralization in the country, said for so many years, development in the rural communities have stalled and the people left to their own fate.

“The environment in the rural areas is increasingly becoming decadent; the streams and other water bodies are being polluted with careless abandon by galamsey operators and nobody cares because the palms of the men and women in authority have been greased.”

“There is very limited economic development in the rural areas because of the absence of micro and small enterprises development; the rural areas suffer from poor road networks and public transport problems; there is paucity of public investment in the rural areas and that explains why their human and physical resources are not fully utilized,” he said.

That aside, he said there is insufficient mobilization and motivation of the rural communities to achieve wider participation in decision-making that is relevant to their welfare.

Scarcity of resources and services for production, he noted, are also very rampant in rural communities with the central government represented by the Ministry of Local Government and Rural Development failing to ensure that activities in the rural areas, especially, forestry and mining do not cause environmental degradation.

The days where the Ministry of Local Government and Rural Development worked through the Local Councils to strengthen the traditional structures in the rural settings by the introduction of Rood Loan Scheme and wall Protection Loan facilities are no more, they added.

“Today, these are off the radar of the Ministry responsible for local government. The houses in the rural settings are handing on badly eroded platforms and are collapsing. The rural environment is characterized by deprivation disease, abject poverty and squalor.”

Worried about the development, the Minority has urged the government to begin putting measures in place that will help reduce the disparities in incomes and standards of living between rural and urban population.