By Steve Oko
Abia State Government has acquired extra 22 buckets for waste disposal.
Commissioner for Information, Mr Okey Kanu who disclosed this Wednesday at a press briefing after the State Executive Council meeting, said the action was part of efforts by Gov Alex Otti to improve the environmental cleanliness of the state.
He said that 15 of the new buckets had already been deployed to Aba while 7 were brought to Umuahia to make up for the shortage in both cities.
Before now, Abia had less than 20 functional buckets for collection of wastes according to sources.
The Commissioner who also disclosed that some public -spirited individuals in Aba had donated some buckets to complement the efforts of the State Government, solicited more donations.
Recall that Governor Otti, had during his inaugural speech, declared state of emergency on waste in the state, and ordered the Abia State Environmental Protection Agency, ASEPA, to evacuate refuse dumps that dotted many streets across Aba and Umuahia metropolis.
He later set up a taskforce on waste management, a development that has led to the disappearance of heaps of rubbish that hitherto littered many streets thereby causing traffic obstructions.
The Commissioner further said that palliative work was on-going in a number of roads in Aba the economic soul of the state, explaining that “if Aba is fixed, Abia will be a better state”.
According to him, Gov. Otti has already turned Aba into a huge construction site in his quest to rebuild the dilapidated infrastructure in the state.
He said that the Governor had also visited the moribund Enyimba Hotels Aba, and hinted on plans to revamp and convert in to a five-star hotel, adding that some investors/big players in the hospitality industry have already indicated interest in it vision.
The Commissioner further disclosed that efforts were being intensified by Gov. Otti who is coming from the corporate world to improve Abia rating in the ease of doing business index for influx of investors.
According to him, one of the major priorities of Gov Otti is to make Abia a major industrial hub in the West African sub-region.
He restated the readiness of the State Government to ensure prompt payment of workers’ salaries and pensions, declaring that the era of salary arrears was over.
He said that in line with the Governor’s promise, Abia workers had received their July salary on 27th July.
He, however, explained that some workers especially teachers and Council workers yet to get paid were due to the on-going biometric verification or those with issues in their Bank Verification Number ( BVN).
The Commissioner explained that as soon as the issues were sorted out they would get paid, adding that before the end of August, all public workers in the state would have been at par vis-a-vis salary payment.
He also said that the State Government was intensifying efforts to wipe out the backlog of pension arrears.
One of the options on table according to him, is issuance of bonds to raise funds to defray the arrears once and for all.
He shed more light on Government’s efforts to revive and transform the education sector, hinting that very soon, three model schools would be unveiled in the three senatorial districts in the state.
He added that Government had also started redeploying back to the classroom, teachers who abandoned teaching job and lobbied to be posted to the Education Board or to the Ministry.
The Commissioner who frowned at such practice which prevailed during the past administration, said that science Teachers involved had been posted back to schools.
He added that Government was also conducting a re-training programme for science Teachers.
He also said that a taskforce had been set up to visit private schools in the state for re-accreditation to improve standards.
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