Students call for decentralisation of Minerals Commission

Koforidua, Oct. 13, GNA- Students of Ofori Panin Senior High School at Kukurantumi in the Eastern Region, have proposed a public policy to decentralise the Minerals Commission to enable small scale miners to register their businesses locally.

They said the proposal would help reduce illegal mining drastically since people would register with the Commission to carry out their businesses legitimately.

The students made the proposal during the third Regional Showcase of Project Citizen Ghana, in Koforidua on Wednesday. They observed that the cumbersome nature of registering small- scale miners popularly called Galamsey operators was a contributing factor to the upsurge of illegal mining in the Region.

They were unanimous in their view that the numerous visits by small scale miners to the office of the Minerals Commission in Accra to register their businesses frustrated those who wanted to do genuine business. The students, who identified the Akyem areas as heavily affected by illegal mining, said the activity was leading to the pollution of water bodies and high rate of school dropout. Project Citizen Ghana is a concept of the National Commission on Civic Education (NCCE) aimed at training the youth on public policy to engineer participatory democracy.

The concept was developed by Mrs Fanny Kumah, Director of Literature o= f the NCCE.

It involves mainly senior and basic schools who identify problems in their catchment areas and work on them for solution throughout the country. Their findings are showcased to the public. This year's showcase in the Region featured the School for the Blind= at Akropong and the Mampong School for the Deaf which would also make a presentation to the public during the three-day event.