Tollbooth workers stage demo in Accra, present petition to Parliament

 Several toll workers across the country poured onto the streets of Accra on Tuesday, November 30, 2021, to protest the cessation of the collection of tolls, which has rendered them redundant.

According to them, the directive from the Minister of Roads and Highways, Kwasi Amoako-Atta is having an adverse impact on their livelihoods.

This follows a directive from the Roads Minister that the collection of road and bridge tolls at all locations nationwide should be halted effective from 12am on Thursday, November 18, 2021.

This followed the announcement made by the Finance Minister during the 2022 budget presentation to Parliament, where he said the decision was to take effect after Parliament approves the budget.

The government has said the tollbooth workers would be retrained and reassigned, and that none of them would lose their jobs, as they would continue to withdraw their salaries.

The Secretary of the Ghana toll workers group, Edward Duncan, presented a petition to Parliament on behalf of the group.

Receiving the petition, the Deputy Majority Chief Whip, Habib Iddrisu assured the protesters of the government’s commitment to resolving their grievances.

The Ministry of Roads and Highways directed the discontinuation of the collection of tolls on all public roads and bridges across the country from Thursday, November 18, 2021.

The directive followed the announcement by the Finance Ministry of the scrapping of tolls on all public roads.

The Speaker of Parliament, Alban Bagbin subsequently directed the Roads Minister to reverse that directive insisting it was illegal and must be immediately withdrawn.                                                                                                      …..TOLL WORKERS……

C/R: Man killed and dumped behind Odupong Kpehe school

A man believed to be in his late 50’s has been allegedly beaten to death and dumped behind Kasoa Odupong Kpehe school building in the Awutu Senya East Municipality of the Central Region.

The deceased was seen by traders lying lifeless on the floor Tuesday morning and died shortly after he was given food and water but refused to take in anything.

It is believed the deceased who was yet to be identified at the time of filing the story was assaulted somewhere and dumped behind the school block.

The Awutu Senya East Director of the Municipal National Disaster Management Organisation (NADMO), Kwame Amoah, believes the man who was foaming at the mouth died due to internal bleeding.

Police officers from the Kasoa District Police command conveyed the body to the Police Hospital morgue while investigations have commenced into the incident.

The NADMO Director appealed to the people of Kasoa to temper justice with mercy and condemned the high rate of instance justice in the Awutu Senya East Municipality and its environs.

…..NADMO…..

 

 

Ghana Health Policy Dialogue 2021 focuses on referral system and elderly care

This year’s Ghana Health Policy Dialogue being held in Kumasi, is extensively focusing on the country’s referral system and care for the elderly.

The dialogue, which is in its fourth edition, is under the theme: “Right care at the right place; referral policy and safekeeping system; networks and practice in NCD and geriatric care”.

The referral system deals with orders given by doctors for patients to see specialists or access certain medical services.

Ghana’s Ministry of Health has therefore partnered the Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology (KNUST), the National Health Insurance Authority (NHIA) and the Technical University of Berlin (TUB) to address these issues.

Special advisor to the Minister of Health, Dr. Baffuor Awuah speaking on behalf of the Minister of health, Kwaku Agyeman Manu said, this year’s policy has been dedicated to critically evaluate the current state of their referral and gatekeeping system and to harness salient ideas to inform the review of Ghana’s national referral policy that was published in 2012.

According to him, this year’s policy dialogue will also discuss extensively the novel health system model being championed by the Ministry of Health and the Ghana Health Service-i.e. the Network of Practice.

…..DR. AWUAH…..

The Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology Vice-chancellor representative, Prof. Anthony Adusei assured of the university’s willingness on evidence generation.

…..PROF. ADUSEI……

 

It is your duty to take out flaws in anti-LGBTQ bill – Palmer-Buckle to Parliament

The Metropolitan Archbishop for Cape Coast, Charles Gabriel Angela Palmer-Buckle has noted that it is the duty of parliament to ensure it fine-tunes the draft bill on Proper Human Rights and Ghanaian Family Values to achieve the purpose it is intended to.

Appearing before parliament’s Constitutional and Legal Affairs Committee to defend the support of the Catholic Church for the controversial anti-LGBTQ+ bill, he noted that the Ghanaian Catholic Church in generality supports the legislation against LGBTQ+ rights.

He, however, noted that the onus lies on the legislative arm of government to ensure it works on the bill to properly answer the sovereign aspirations of the Ghanaian population.

According to him, “A bill has been brought to parliament and I think yours is to look at the bill and to see if there are excesses or flaws in it; pen them out. But the generality of the bill is what we are pursuing as to some of what we call dotting the i’s and crossing the t’s, that is why you are lawmakers. We are not going to debate what the bill is supposed to have presented”.

He emphasized the position of the Catholic Church on the anti-LGBTQ+ bill saying “the generality of the bill which they support strongly is that homosexual activity is intrinsically disordered and therefore, if it is intrinsically disordered according to their Christian beliefs,  Islamic beliefs, and traditional religious beliefs, and so on and so forth, they the lawmakers whom they have voted there have a responsibility to fashion the bill in such a way that they answer their sovereign aspirations and he thinks that is a basis that they should not run away from,.

The parliamentary committee is currently receiving presentations and memoranda from groups and individuals both in support and against the anti-LGBTQ+ bill.

…..PALMER BUCKLE…..

 

Kumasi: We'll fix dumsor by December 20 – GRIDCo

The power outages in the Ashanti region will continue until December 20 as a result of ongoing works on three damaged towers of GRIDCo at Bogoso, GRIDCo has said.

At a press conference jointly organised by GRIDCo and ECG in Kumasi today, the Director of Northern Network Services at GRIDCo, Ing. Vincent Boachie said they are currently working on their 330kV Aboadze to Kumasi transmission lines at Bogoso which were damaged by a communication tower after it fell on it.

Mr Boachie said one of the three towers which were damaged has been fixed, leaving two which are currently being worked on.

He said currently most of the electricity supply to Kumasi has since been coming from Akosombo Generation Station and generation enclave in Tema.

Mr Boachie said as a result, during the peak period, the available transmission network cannot carry enough power to the country's middle and northern parts, including Kumasi.

He said that has caused the current power outages in the region because they are unable to supply the required power to the region.

Mr Boachie apologised to residents in the region to bear with them as work has been expedited on fixing the lines.

Mr Boachie indicated that the ECG cannot come out with a load shedding timetable because they cannot predict the voltage they will have for distribution at the peak period (6 pm - 11 pm).

Mr Boachie also said plans are underway to relocate the Ameri Power Plant from Aboadze to Kumasi to provide reliable power to the region.

…..ING BOACHIE….