Dr. Nii Adjei Kraku ll, the Tema Mantse has called for a formal identification of porters and scrap hunters, popularly called ‘truck pushers,’ so that the state can keep a thumb on their activities and also make them responsible partners in nation building.
As part of the envisaged streamline, he suggested that special tax be instituted for such people so that the state could benefit from their activities, especially, scrap hunting, which he said was overlooked, though it is lucrative.
“Day in, day out, the number of truck pushers keep increasing and somehow nobody is paying attention. But if we as a nation are really serious about our human resource then these fellow citizens too must be streamlined,” Nii said in an exclusive interview.
As part of the vision he said, all truck pushers would be provided uniforms and identification numbers so that they could easily be recognised by the public that patronised their services.
“This identification would make it easy to hold them accountable and therefore deter them from encroaching on ceremonial streets that are officially off-limits to them, since such encroachers can easily be identified by their numbers.
He said a special levy or tax that would be instituted for them would also be easy to collect because of the same identification numbers.
“I am concerned about the neglect of people in this sector because their numbers keep swelling and nobody is paying attention.”
He added that the neglect was also a trap for the whole nation since the youthful members of society were giving birth with no proper access to social benefits such as good health, housing and education for the children.
He said a streamlining of their activities would lead to organisation of the truck pushers that could mould them into an association that could help to attract help from philanthropists and be the focal point of specific government policies.
The Tema Mantse said the uniform for truck pushers would in addition to serving as an identity; also remove the eyesore of dirty looking truck pushers roaming around towns, especially the streets of the capital city of the country.
There are no ready statistics on the number of Ghanaians involved in the truck pushing business, which is largely regarded as a menial job for the extremely less privileged in society.
Nii Adjei Kraku ll pointed out that the lack of statistics on the sector also means that nobody knew the rate at which people were joining the occupation which was a sector for the slightest privileged in society.
“A streamline of their activities will therefore help provide statistics on the sector which will help government to target them with specific policies.
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