Dormaa East District Chief Executive, Isaac Kofi Kyeremeh, has deplored the expensive and competitive manner in which funerals are celebrated in the district to the detriment of children's education and the welfare of poor families. He has, therefore, proposed to the assembly to open serious discussions into the practice and come out with suggestions and recommendations that would "ensure that the living is given their due while the dead earn their respect." Mr Kyeremeh raised the concern in an address to the assembly at its first general meeting at Wamfie, during which the assembly's financial, security and agricultural affairs, among others, were discussed. He noted that funerals had assumed such a fashionable dimension that bereaved families felt it was now the leading means by which they should flaunt their wealth and make their presence felt. "As they spend so heavily on these funerals, they tend to forget that their children deserve to be given quality education to prepare them adequately for the future," the DCE stressed. Mr Kyeremeh appealed to traditional leaders and religious organizations to assist the assembly enforce its bye-laws on education to get all children of school-going age into the classroom. On the assembly's finances, the Chief Executive announced that a total of GHc 936,649.20 out of its Common Fund share of GHc 1,432,145.89 was received while the third quarter was still expected. He noted that the status of the internally generated revenue had not changed as it continued to record abysmal low figures, adding that as at April 30, 2010, it could mobilize only GHc 51,409.47, representing 39 percent of its target for the first quarter. He urged the assembly to consider for adoption the ceding of part of its revenue mobilization to a private debt collector in the near future to enhance revenue collection. On development projects, Mr Kyeremeh announced that the assembly had completed construction work to turn the Wamfie Community Library into a temporary office for the Ghana Education Service, while work was nearing completion on the three-unit classroom block for the Kyeremasu SDA, Kyeremasu DA, Asuotiano basic and Nseseresu/Asuhyia Kindergarten Schools. On expanded water and sanitation, he announced that the government and Agence Francaise de Development (AFD) had secured the necessary funding to sink 50 boreholes in the district between 2010 and 2013 while five huge metal containers had been constructed and deposited at vantage points in the district capital to control indiscriminate refuse disposal. Mr Kyeremeh appealed to farmers in the district to return to their cocoa farms, rehabilitate the dying ones and cultivate new ones to protect the remaining forests against bushfires. On security, he expressed worry over the increasing incidence on Indian hemp smoking among the youth despite incessant appeals to them to quit it and channel their precious time and energy towards their future development. He said recently, the assembly had to arrange for four young men who had gone insane as a result of "wee" smoking and were terrorizing sections of communities in the area to be sent to the psychiatric hospital for medical care. The DCE stressed that the "wee" smoking situation was assuming alarming proportion, which required the immediate intervention of parents, the security services and civil society. Source: GNA