Support MMDAs to carry out street-naming activities — Jamal
The Deputy Minister of Local Government and Rural Development (MLGRD), Mr Baba Jamal, has called on the regional technical staff to provide the necessary support to their various metropolitan, municipal and district Assemblies (MMDAs) to effectively carry out the various street naming activities.
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Addressing participants at the end of a two-day regional training workshop on street naming and property addressing system at the weekend, he said it was 10 months to the deadline of the directive and, therefore, stressed the need for all state institutions with the technical know-how on the project to join hands for the successful execution of the project.
The workshop, organised by MLGRD, was attended by regional co-ordinating directors, regional town & country planning directors, regional surveyors, regional economic planners and regional lands valuation officers.
The aim of the workshop, according to Mr Jamal, was for regional technical staff to discuss and share information and strategies on how best they could implement, monitor and co-ordinate the street naming and property addressing system nationwide.
He recalled that in April 2012, President John Dramani Mahama, the then Vice President, launched the National Street Naming and Property Addressing Policy and the National Operational Guidelines on Street Naming and Property Addressing System in Kumasi and gave presidential directives that the project should be completed throughout the country in 18 months.
Under USAID sponsored street naming project in the Western Region as a reference material for the street naming exercise, the ministry, according to Mr Baba, had prepared a practical guide on how to do manual based on best practical experience in the field.
That additional manual was launched in Wa, the Capital of the Upper West Region at the start of the 'road show' on street naming and disseminated together with the policy throughout the country at all the 10 regional capitals, Mr Jamal stated.
He said in each region, copies of the street naming policy and guideline and how to do the manual were distributed to participating regional co-ordinating councils (RCCs) and MMDAs.
The deputy minister said additionally, equipment for setting up GIS units at the Regional Town & Country Offices were donated on behalf of the government. This equipment included GPS, scanners, laptops, photocopiers, desktop and colour printers.
He also said very soon, similar equipment would be presented to all MMDAs in the country.
Mr Jamal again reminded the participants that it meant that no RCCs or MMDAs would have an excuse for going against the presidential directive.
He told them that he was aware the Regional Town & Country Offices have been directed by the head office to assign district officers additional responsibility to districts without Town and Country officers and urged them to comply with the directive to ensure that every district had a town and country planner to facilitate the process.
Mr Jamal said the ministry had also worked with the National Service Secretariat to post planners to districts without one and urged the participants to support these young personnel to work as expected.
The Deputy Ashanti Regional Minister, Mr Samuel Yaw Adusei, earlier reminded the participants that the project was of great importance to President Mahama and because of that, he had laid more emphasis on matters pertaining to the project when he addressed Ghanaians during the launch of the project in Accra early this year.
He, therefore, saw the regional training workshop for the regional technical officers necessary as it was going to rekindle their know-how to play an effective supervisory role so that the MMDAs could implement the project effectively.