The Member of Parliament for Cape Coast South in the Central Region, Kwaku Ricketts Hagan has called for a ten- year ban on all forms of small scale mining.
He believes this will ensure proper streamlining of small scale mining.
Government imposed the six-month ban on small-scale mining as part of efforts to end illegal mining and its degrading effects on the environment.
But speaking on Citi FM’s News Analysis Programme, The Big Issue, the Cape Coast South MP argued the six month period is too short.
“Six month ban is not going to restore the water bodies and all that. Let’s do a ban for ten years but then a plan has to be in place to really integrate these people into the one district, one factory that the NPP was talking about. We need to really take the bull basically by the horn. These things are cosmetic. We must have the political will, we must have every will to deal with it.
“It is actually difficult now policing these things as to who is doing it legally and who is doing it illegally but once you have a total ban you should not be doing it, therefore if you are doing it you are basically against the law. What we should be looking at is whether the small scale mining itself should continue in the future. We cannot get the Minister running around the whole country trying to see who is at a Galamsey site, whether the person is Ukrainian or not,” he argued.
While calls for small scale mining ban to be extended intensify, Mr. Peter Amewu has stated that the ban on small-scale mining may extend beyond the stipulated six months.
The government has also warned the small scale miners that any attempt to breach the six-month freeze on all forms of small-scale mining will be considered a violation of the laws of the country and will be met with action from security forces, who will be deployed to enforce the ban.
The Ghana National Association of Small-Scale Miners expressed its displeasure with the ban and its Ashanti Region chapter had declared plans to demonstrate against it.
During the Minister’s tour of the Ashanti Region, the Asantehene, Otumfuo Osei Tutu II, however, urged small-scale miners in the Region to comply with government’s ban.
According to him, the ban is a step in the right direction and will help deal with the menace, urging Ghanaians to understand that “this is being done to save Ghana from extinction.”
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(Via: CitiFM Online Ghana)
