Accra, Oct. 4, GNA - Mr Mike Hammer, Minister of Lands and Natural Recourses, has urged state institutions to be vigilant and put in place executive instruments to protect lands which were acquired by government form encroachers.

He said the level of encroachment on public lands which had been acquired by government to serve public purposes was on the increase and beneficiary institutions must put in measures to stop such practices. "When government acquires lands for institutions, it is incumbent on them to make sure the lands are protected and used for the acquired purposes", he added.

Mr Hammer made the call when he inspected some state acquired lands fo= r some institutions which had been encroached by private developers on Monday in Accra.

The institutions include the South Legon residential area, Achimota Forest and Achimota Senior High School, Ghana Atomic Energy Commission, Adenta site for Civil Aviation, Pantang site for Ghana Post and Vodafone an= d the Military Police National Dog Academy.

He said the visit was to see the actual situation or level of encroachment on the state acquired lands and come out with immediate solutions to the situation.

Mr Hammer noted that indiscipline in the land market was on the increase and it was important for the statutory laws and regulations to be implemented to deter encroachers, saying there was the need for a radical transformation in the land system of the country.

He said the country stood the risk of being under-developed if the state lands were not managed properly to serve the intended purpose and tha= t enough education and sensitization would have to be done for the public to be aware of the implications of encroaching on government lands.

Mr Hammer also indicated that building enough capacity to utilize the land use plan as well as building the capacity of the judiciary to understand, interpret and implement the laws on land rightly and widening o= r deepening the engagement with the communities would also help to stop the practice, He appealed to the institutions to try as much as possible to inform government as early as possible when their lands were encroached upon, and to also protect the remaining lands they had.

Prof. Dr. Edward H. K. Akaho, Director General of the Ghana Atomic Energy Commission, said 30 per cent of their land had been encroached by private developers and they were trying as much as possible to put in effective measures to stop the practice.

According to Mr Akaho, efforts to prevent private developers from encroaching the land had proved futile, saying pillars which had been sited at the boundaries of the lands had been ignored and as time goes on more buildings were springing up.

He said Ghana had signed various conventions and treaties in relation to land issues and any violation of such treats could result to sanction or military attack on the country.

He called on encroachers to be very careful since their actions could have implications on the country's development.