The Greater Accra Regional Minister, Ishmael Ashietey, has asked the Accra Metropolitan Assembly (AMA) and the Tema Metropolitan Assembly (TMA), to strive to enforce the by-laws governing the construction of structures within their jurisdictions.
This he said, will help prevent the indiscriminate springing up of such unapproved structures and the accompanying cost borne by the two authorities in demolishing it.
The advice comes on the back of an announced demolition exercise by the AMA some two weeks ago, to rid the national capital of unapproved structures.
But Speaking to Citi News, Greater Accra Regional Minister, Ishmael Ashietey, said instead of resorting to demolitions, the two oversight bodies should concentrate on enforcing their by-laws that govern same.
“They are the governors of the area, TMA governs Tema, AMA makes sure that Accra operates well. As the regional minister, all that I can advise them to do is that, they enforce the rules and regulations that they themselves have come up with. Don’t give somebody a permit to go and construct something and later you turn round to go and demolish it. Those who gave out those permits which are not to be given have to be dealt with.”
The Minister lamented that, the demolition of nearly completed structures appears to be unduly punishing people.
“When someone goes to put up a building on waterways, and we sit down and wait for him to get to a certain level when he has pumped in so much money before we go in a say we are going to demolish it, maybe that person has not got the expertise to determine that the place he is putting up the building is not right. I believe that in Accra, anybody who wants to put up a structure, even in Tema, you have to go and get a permit. You don’t have to do that, wait for the person to reach a certain level and go in and say we want to demolish. That looks like we want to punish people unduly,” he said.
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(Via: CitiFM Online Ghana)
