NPP dismembers Ministry

The National Democratic Congress (NDC) on Wednesday expressed regret at the rot that has engulfed the Ministry of Environment and Science which had hitherto had Technology attached to it.

It said with the removal of Technology from the Ministry all the department under the Council of Scientific and Industrial Research (CSIR) "are confused as to which parent ministry they relate to.

Alban Bagbin, NDC Minority Leader in Parliament at a press conference held on two years of NPP administration: A litany of broken promises and shattered dreams - Minority perspectives, said that the confusion at that ministry has brought in its wake inertia, despondency and low output.

"An NDC led government will re-designate this Ministry to its former status as Ministry of Environment, Science and Technology." He said the previous NDC government, realising the key role the Ministry plays in the socio-economic development in the country had promulgated the Science and Technology Policy document to provide a blueprint for the development of the country to be based on Science and Technology.

Bagbin said, "It is regrettable that this all-embracing policy document has been abandoned by the NPP government and left to gather dust on the shelves while adhoc policies are adopted on Science and Technology application in the country.

"No wonder, President Kufuor's State of the Nation Addresses in 2001, 2002 and 2003 touched very little if anything at all about science and technology and the environment."

He said the government's consideration to grant applications for mining in the forest reserves in the Eastern, Ashanti and Western regions because of the amount of foreign investment involved, would seriously diminish the stock of forest cover and that promises of environmental reclamation were only "cold comfort".

Bagbin said, "The experience of reclamation is that the mined out forest areas are never restored to their original pristine condition before the bulldozers moved in." He said the Ministry's poor handling of a reported case of cyanide spillage endangered the lives of people, and the environment in the Western Region.