Town Country Department to issue building permit in three months

Accra, June 18, GNA - Dr. Alfred Vanderpuije, Accra Metropolitan Chief Executive (AMA), on Thursday tasked the Town and Country Planning Department, to issue building permits within three months, in order to reverse the long waiting period by applicants. "Develop effective mechanism to deal with all administrative bottlenecks and human impediments that inhibit and prolong the process of issuing building permits.

"The Assembly has resolved that any officer who without any justifiable reason causes delay in the process of development application will be penalized," Dr Vanderpuije said. The AMA Chief Executive stated this during interaction with some religious groups and journalists as part of a series of educational campaign initiated by the Assembly, to sensitize identifiable bodies on the pending decongestion exercise in Accra. He said issue relating to permit acquisition was an essential aspect of the computerization, numbering and naming of streets and houses in Accra.

Dr Vanderpuije said naming and numbering of the properties would help easy location, effective management of water and sanitation as well as improvement of revenue collection. The day was set aside to educate leaders of religious bodies to school their congregation on the need to keep the city clean and the importance of decongestion to facilitate development. He said the proliferation of unauthorized structures like kiosks and containers had debased the beauty and status of Accra and said some members of staff at the Sub-Metros who issue illegal permits to people were part of the problem.

"Officers who give out any permit other than the AMA Planning Committee commits an offence and would be brought to book," he said. Dr Vanderpuije said, while in some countries' solid waste was an essential commodity which attracted buyers; Ghana's waste had become a huge problem.

He said AMA was developing a new system for effective collection of waste management fees. Dr Vanderpuije said the initiative would enable AMA to generate resources to support service delivery and reduce the huge financial burden on government. He emphasized that AMA was simply enforcing its bye-laws in order to "stem indiscipline and lawlessness and make the city governable and healthy to live in."

He said AMA had given hawkers and traders doing business on road pavements, streets and intersections, time to relocate to the 32 markets in the Metropolis, including the Odawna market. Dr Vanderpuije said the country could not afford to be left behind in development as filth and poor waste management served as threats to investment and tourism. He announced a 25 million- dollar waste management project to generate electricity as part of the Assembly's strategy to manage waste.

Dr said as part of the educational campaign, the Assembly had met with stakeholders including corporate organisations, heads of the various markets, the business community and officials of People with Disability. He said among the projects pioneered to develop the metropolis include the Urban Environmental and Sanitation Project, where about 4.3 kilometre roads in some communities including Ckorkor, Dansoman, would be tarred.

As part of the project about 32 schools and a number of places of convenience would be built whilst the Chemu lagoon would be cleaned. Maulvi Dr. Wahab Adam, Head of the Ahmadiyya Muslim Mission in Ghana pledged the support of the religious bodies towards AMA's efforts to rid the city of hawkers and filth. 18 June 09