The move, he said, would enable the government to monitor both the river guards and the security operatives deployed to fight the illegal small-scale mining menace.
Mr Okyere-Darko Mensah suggested when contributing to a statement made on the floor of Parliament by Emmanuel Armah-Kofi Buah, the Minister of Lands and Natural Resources, on Wednesday.
The MP for Takoradi also suggested that any plans by the government to decentralise the licensing regime of the small-scale mining, the district mining committees should be involved.
Mr Patrick Yaw Boamah, the MP for Okaikwei Central, while contributing to the statement, called for de-politicisation of the fight against illegal mining and advocated a strong political will by the Executive arm of government to deal with the phenomenon decisively.
Earlier, Mr Armah-Kofi Buah, the Lands Minister, in a statement on the floor of the House, said the country’s water bodies and forest reserves were in deep crises because of the massive devastation caused by the activities of illegal small-scale miners.
He solicited the support of parliamentarians to help combat the illegal mining scourge collaboratively.
The minister said he had inaugurated an 18-member Technical Working Committee to review the mining sector and implement radical reforms to sanitise the sector.
Mr Buah mentioned short, medium and longer-term measures to reform the sector and highlighted some initiatives including the “Blue Water” and “Tree for Life” to restore the polluted water bodies and degraded forests.
He added that plans were underway to review the Legislative Instrument (L.I 2462) to ensure the holistic protection of the country’s forest resources and the biodiversity.
Mr minister bemoaned the low adjudication of mining-related cases in courts, noting that out of 800 cases in courts less than 40 of them had been successfully adjudicated.
The minister invited members of Parliament to participate in an upcoming Parliamentary Conference on Restoring a Culture of Proper Small-Scale Mining in Ghana.
GNA
