IN HIS effort to curb the menace of illegal mining commonly referred to as �galamsey� the District Chief Executive for the Upper Denkyira West in the Central region, Ambrose Amoah Ashyia has led in an operation to arrest six Chinese miners using unapproved means to mine in the area.
The arrested Chinese miners have since been handed over to the National Quarters of the Immigration Service for further interrogation.
According to him, the foreigners in collaboration with their Ghanaian counterparts who were at large were hiding in one of the forest reserves in the district to carry out their illegal business. He explained that they were arrested as a result of surveillance system put in place by the Assembly.
The DCE who revealed this to the DAILY HERITAGE in an interview at Diaso cautioned, that though government has relaxed the operations of the taskforce set up to clamp down of those who engage in illegal mining, the district assembly would continue its part to deal with them to save the environment.
Mr Ashyia pointed out that the assembly has embarked on special operation to deal ruthlessly with the illegal miners.
�Very soon we shall carry out another swoop on those miners hiding in parts of the district doing the galamsey business,� he hinted.
He disclosed the assembly has secured legal backing to haul the miners who have failed to reclaim their concessions after mining.
Mr. Ashyia noted that though the activities of the illegal miners had subsidized due to the anti- illegal mining taskforce put in place by the government, some chiefs were still releasing mining sites to illegal foreign miners.
�The involvement of some chiefs in this illegal mining business is making it very difficult for the assembly to control the activities of people engaging in galamsey because as the custodians of the land it is extremely hard for us to arrest them (the chiefs).�
�In the past years, the performance of our pupils in the Basic Education Certificate Examination (BECE) was nothing good to write home about, but I�m happy to say following the anti- illegal mining taskforce�s operations that majority of children who use to accompany their parents to their mining sites are now in the classroom. Our last BECE results were very appreciable �he remarked.
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