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Ashanti Regional Minister, Mr. Samuel Sarpong, has said the largesse of the President in donating 13 pick-ups to the various Houses of chiefs, the Secretariat of the National House of Chiefs and Chieftaincy Secretariat is in the right direction. Mr. Sarpong said that the John Mahama-led administration should continue to liaise with Chiefs and support them in whatever possible way to facilitate the administration of the institution and make them functional. Addressing Nananom at Jacobu in Amansie Central in the Ashanti region, last week Thursday, the Minister stated that President John Dramani Mahama is governing Ghana in partnership with traditional authorities and that there was nothing wrong with the vehicles he gave to Houses of Chiefs. Mr. Sarpong explained that before the advent of the Europeans on Ghanaian soil, Nananom were at the helm of affairs of governance and that the Chieftaincy institution was in existence before western democracy was introduced into Ghana. The Minister further disclosed that in furtherance of the position of government, regarding assistance to chiefs, the government had added some funds to the District Assembly Common Funds, which is allocated to the various MMDAs to the chiefs, for the maintenance of their palaces and the day to day running of their secretariats. Minister Sarpong reiterated that the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) and Minerals Commission were �useless� in terms of their mandate to regulate activities that tend to degrade the environment. �If you do not do the work you are mandated to do, you are useless�, he said, and indicated that if the two institutions work effectively there would not be lands to reclaim after miners have destroyed them. He disclosed that Ashanti Regional Coordinating Council (RCC) has set up an anti Galamsey Task force, under the leadership of the newly-appointed Deputy Ashanti Minister, Mr. Joseph Yamin, and the task force�s prime motive is to mitigate illegal mining in Ashanti Region and also let small scale miners cover uncovered pits. Mr. Sarong bemoaned the rate at which our forests and land are being illegally acquired by some chainsaw operators in the devastation of our forests. The Akwamuhene of Bekwai Traditional Area, Nana Ntim Amankuo II, bemoaned the manner in which the Environmental protection Agency {EPA} goes about monitoring the operations of small scale miners. He indicated that the EPA must desist from their armchair style of administering small scale miners in the Amansie Central, since �pits dug by small scale miners are left uncovered, contrary to the law. Nana Amankuo, who has oversight responsibility over the stool lands in Amansie Central, told the Ashanti Regional Minster and his entourage at the Jacobu Palace, during a courtesy call on Nananom, that the money deposited by small scale miners with the EPA for land reclamation is so minimal and that it serves no purpose in the event that the miners do not cover them. The Bekwai Akwamuhene commended the government for hooking up a number of communities in Amansie Central to the national grid and appealed to the Government to save them from bad roads in the area.