Mr Joseph Amenowode, Volta Regional Minister has said that government is consoled by the appreciation and commendations it receives from the rural communities on its performance, contrary to what urban dwellers say. He was addressing a fund raising durbar of the Chiefs and people of the Have traditional area on Saturday, towards a GH¢100,000 multipurpose Agadevi Community Centre project. The durbar formed part of this year’s Agadevi festival, under the theme, “The development of Have, our shared responsibility”. Mr Amenowode said government was able to build 200 schools in rural communities of the Volta region in two years, which he described as unprecedented since Ghana gained independence in 1957. He said 100 more such schools would be built this year, one of which would be in Have. Mr Elvis Afriyie Ankrah, Deputy Local Government and Rural Development Minister said government has been modest in talking about its achievements. He announced that for the first time, each member of the Metropolitan, Municipal and District Assemblies would be provided with a motor cycle to improve their mobility and interaction with their constituents. Mr Ankrah urged the youth to persevere in whatever positive activities they were engaged in so as to break out of the poverty cycle. Mr Agyenim Boateng Boateng, Deputy Minister of Tourism, said the government has taken certain initiatives, in collaboration with other Ministries, to open up tourist sites in the country and also encourage the citizenry to patronize it. He said one such initiative sought to encourage pupils and students to take keen interest in activities pertaining to the sector. Mr Boateng urged the youth to shun immoral sexual activities such homo-sexualism and lesbianism because of their potential to destroy their future and personalities. Recounting the history of the Agadevi festival, Togbe Asemtsyra XI, Fiaga of Have said it is in commemoration of a major landslide in the community, on the night of June 15, 1933, during which boulders came crushing down into the community from the mountain range overlooking it, but “miraculously” not a single human being or animal was killed. He said the festival has therefore become an occasion of remembrance and thanksgiving to God for his mercy and as a rallying point for mobilizing financial and material resources for developing the community. To this day one could see relics of that landslide in the form of clusters of rocks on the compound of the E.P. Primary and Junior High Schools, which was the path of the crushing boulders. Source: GNA