Minister meets leadership of GPRTU & PROTOA

Accra, March 12, GNA - Mr Kwadwo Adjei-Darko, Minister of Local Government and Rural Development, on Friday said the government believed in "property owning democracy" and would do everything to encourage everybody engaged in legitimate business.

He said it would be suicidal for any government to stop the operations of any organisation that provided vital social services to its people.

Mr Adjei-Darko said this when he met the leadership of the Ghana Private Road and Transport Union (GPRTU) and Progressive Transport Owners Association (PROTOA) at the Ministry to find ways of solving the disputes between the two groups.

On Wednesday, March 10, there was a clash between the two groups over loading rights at the Neoplan Station in which the windscreen and side glasses of a 45-seater air-conditioned bus were damaged.

The 11 suspects including two GPRTU officials arrested by the Neoplan Station Police were granted bail in the sum of 100 million cedis each when they appeared before an Accra Circuit Court on Thursday, March 11.

Mr Adjei-Darko said District Assemblies were the controllers and managers of lorry parks and it would not be proper for one transport group to deprive other groups from operating at those parks. He said government was not against any side because it was there to encourage all to do legitimate business, which would enable them to feed themselves and their dependants.

He therefore, appealed to all transport organisations in the country to find ways of settling issues peacefully among themselves instead of fighting openly and destroying properties. The Minister assured the leadership that his Ministry would circulate letters to all the District Assemblies to remind the assemblies of the Legislative Instrument establishing them and the need to ensure peaceful operations at the various lorry parks.

Nana Atekoasa Danso Agyeman I, First Vice Chairman of PROTOA, said atrocities and clashes between the GPRTU, PROTOA and Co-operative Society were there long before the New Patriotic Party Government assumed office, and blamed District Chief Executives (DCEs) for taking sides.

"Some DCEs are not being fair to some of us at all, when there is a problem and we approach them for amicable solutions, most of them do not even want to see eye-to-eye with us because according to them they only recognise the GPRTU," he said.

He said there was the need for all transport organisations to co-operate with one another to promote their businesses. Mr Kojo Moses, Chairman of the Ghana Road Transport Coordinating Council (GRTCC), urged the ministry to set up a committee to come out with guidelines to regulate activities at lorry parks in order to bring some professionalism into the industry.

He admitted that there were lots of errors in the past, which could only be corrected in time, and urged transport organisations to try and tolerate each other until those errors were corrected. Abdul B.Y. Flashman, Deputy General Secretary in-charge of operations, GPRTU, also pledged their support for the ministry to find a lasting solution to the problem.