District assemblies asked to cultivate Jethropha for Bio-diesel

Asamankese (E/R), May 30, GNA - The government has asked all district assemblies to seriously consider the large-scale cultivation of the Jethropha plant, which is used to produce bio-diesel to serve as a substitute for petroleum oil.

Addressing the West Akyem District Assembly at Asamankese, the District Chief Executive (DCE), Mr Kwabena Sintim-Aboagye said the government's directive stemmed from its concern about the increasing cost of fuel, resulting from escalating world price of oil and the need to find alternative fuel sources.

He has therefore, challenged groups and individuals in the district to take up the challenge and go into large-scale cultivation of jethropha to help reduce the nation's fuel cost and increase their incomes since, there would be ready market for the produce. Mr Sintim-Aboagye announced that the West Akyem District Health Insurance Scheme was making tremendous strides in the registration of members, saying, currently, the membership strength of the scheme stood at 32,120 as against 8,868, when it was launched last year. He said while 16,840 people were card-bearing members, who were qualified to access benefits, it was anticipated that by the end of June, about 4,000 new ones would be added to the qualified members. The DCE commended the management of the scheme for its awareness creation and mass registration in the urban centres. Mr Sintim-Aboagye said, as at March 31, total attendance at the various health institutions by subscribers was 10,709 at a cost of 728,169,360 cedis.

The scheme, he said, had collected a total of 455,789,000 cedis as premium and registration fees and had also received a subsidy of 1,134,007,593 from government for the exempt group, claims payment and administrative support.

The DCE appealed for the authorities at health institutions to make drugs available for patients on visit, so they would have confidence in the scheme.

Earlier in his welcome address, the Presiding Member, Mr Daniel Saforo Owusu, observed that the recent increases in fuel prices called for the adoption of measurers to ensure conservation of fuel. "Certain errands of short distances for which walking would do should be the preferred choice for many", since if care was not taken, the bills on fuel might put the assembly's budget out of gear.

Mr Owusu, who described the current End-of-Service Benefit paid to Assembly members as "insignificant", appealed to the Ministry of Local Government, Rural Development and Environment to impress upon the government to institute an endowment insurance scheme for Assembly members with effect from the next assembly session. He explained that this would go a long way to motivate them to deliver to the best of their knowledge and capabilities.