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Mr Emmanuel Atta-Twum, Atiwa District Chief Executive (DCE), said the financial constraints of the assembly were preventing it from maintaining a permanent security on the grounds to fight illegal mining. Mr Atta-Twum said this when he received members of the Technical Committee of the Minerals Commission Board at Kwabeng. The Committee led by its Chairman, Mr Awuah Nyamekye, was in the Eastern Region to visit some mining sites. Mr Atta-Twum said the judiciary was not helping the fight against illegal mining at the Atiwa area. He cited an instance where mining equipment belonging to some illegal miners were seized and sent to the Koforidua Court for prosecution but the equipment was released to their owners after a short while. Mr Atta-Twum called for reduction in the period between the publication of the award of mining concession and the permit to start operations. �This is because immediately the illegal miners get to know of the presence of gold in an area, they move in before those who had been awarded the concession start work,� he said. He appealed to the Minerals Commission to provide a desk officer at the Atiwa District Assembly. Mr Benjamin Aryee, Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of the Minerals Commission, appealed to the DCE to collaborate with the mining companies in the district in their fight against illegal mining.