TDC, TMA URGED TO CO-EXIST PEACEFULLY (PAGE 19)

The Greater Accra Regional Minister, Nii Armah Ashietey, has called on the Tema Development Corporation (TDC) and the Tema Metropolitan Assembly (TMA) to co-exist peacefully to ensure a well-planned and structural development of the metropolis.
He said the two organisations were set up to plan and develop Tema and, therefore, did not need to fight over who did what at a particular time .
Nii Armah Ashietey made the remarks when he introduced the new acting Managing Director of the TDC, Mr Joe Abbey, to the assembly in Tema.
Mr Joe Abbey replaces Ms Mansa Banson who has proceeded on leave.
Nii Armah Ashietey urged the assembly to collaborate with Mr Abbey to find solutions to the developmental problems facing the metropolis.
He cited the indiscriminate issuance of permits, resulting in the wrong siting of buildings and kiosks in the metropolis.
Nii Armah Ashietey, therefore, appealed to the yet-to-be-sworn in Metropolitan Chief Executive of Tema, Mr Robert Kempis Ofosuware, to work in harmony with the TDC to beautify the metropolis by ensuring its efficient planning.
The regional minister said he was not happy with the lease of the 24-acre land which comprised 100 plots on the Spintex Road to a private company to operate.
He urged the TMA to reconsider its decision and reclaim the land for it to be used for the purpose for which it was acquired.
The regional minister, who recently toured some facilities of the assembly, said the land was originally operated by the assembly to generate funds for the development of the metropolis, but his first-hand information on the site indicated that it had been given out to a private company to make gains, to the detriment of the assembly.
Mr Ashietey said another 26-acre land at Adjiringanor had also been left fallow for years and encroachers had put up structures on it.
He advised that neglect of government property must not be condoned, and called on the assembly to initiate moves to reclaim all its lost property.
Nii Armah Ashietey announced that the government would commend assemblies that honoured their promises and initiated programmes that were self-sustaining.
He also urged the assembly to endeavour to tackle the tasks of effective planning, efficient execution and implementation to bring development to the people.
Meanwhile, the assembly has plans to revive satellite markets in the various communities in the Tema metropolis and decongest the main Community One Market, which is glutted with goods and inundated with traders and structures.
Presently, some of the community markets have been taken over by squatters who converted them into sleeping places.
At Community Four, the space reserved for a market has been turned into a residential commercial area where private buildings continue to spring up and a storey building which was supposed to be used as a shopping mall has been partly given out as private offices to the Internal Revenue Service.
At Community Seven, several kiosks and ‘chop bars’ have sprung up at the reserved space and part of it is being used as residences.
The Community Nine satellite market, which the assembly had intended as a solution to its congestion problems at the main Community One Market, also needs to be provided with sheds.
Some of the women have complained of attacks by robbers because of the non-availability of security lights.
Recently, to decongest the area, the assembly forcibly moved women who were hawking along the streets in the Tema Community One Market to the Community Nine Market.