Minister for Lands and Natural Resources (MLNR), Hon. Emmanuel Armah Kofi Buah has revealed that one person can acquire about 30 licenses in the community mining regime, in utter violation of the regulation.
He said all those licenses are to be revoked in order to sanitize the community mining space.
Minister for Lands and Natural resources Hon. Emmanuel Armah Kofi Buah addressing the media
Hon. Armah Buah made this disclosure at a Press Conference held in Accra on Wednesday in collaboration with the Ministry of Environment, Science and Technology (MEST)
He explained that the revelation follows findings of a commitee jointly set up by MLNR and MEST.
The Minister also cautioned that all those licenses are to be reviewed adding that all those who fail to go through the process of verification or vvalidation should consider their licenses revoked.
The MP for Ellembelle also emphasized that the community mining scheme are henceforth to be replaced by small scale cooperatives as part of ongoing efforts to combat galamsey in the country.
According to the Minister, the change in name is to ensure that the objective for it’s implementation is achieved whilst also contributing to the fight against galamsey.
“These cooperatives will be formed after due diligence with the communities involved so they properly represent the communities”, the Minister stressed.
According to him, the current regime is fraught with so many problems; hence, establishing a Technical Small-Scale Mining Review Committee to review all existing small-scale licenses was necessary to protect the environment.
Minister for MEST, Hon. Murtala Mohammed addressing the media.
On his part, the Minister for Science, Environment and Technology, Dr. Murtala Mohammed, underscored the need for the media to prioritize the galamsey fight stressing that the galamsey war being waged is a moral fight for our own survival.
He therefore called on the media and Civil Society organizations to see the fight as a collective responsibility and be deeply involved.
Hon. Murtala described galamsey
as an evil and terrorism of land and river bodies, warning politicians
“who think they can hide behind political parties to do galamsey to beware.
Source:www.senaradioonline.com
