Current minerals and mining laws do not favour traditional land owners to give them power to stop mining on their lands, according to Lawyer Kwame Gyan. Lawyer Gyan explained that the 2006 Minerals and Mining Act does not give much power to traditional leaders to stop mining operations in their area, if they are not in favour of that operation. Consequently, mining activities have been rampant in resource rich areas, with miners polluting river bodies which serve as sources of drinking water in such communities. The land acquisition minder was speaking in an interview on Adom FM’s Dwaso Nsem on Thursday in the wake of recent illegal mining activities that have hit parts of the country. The latest such spot is the beaches of Elmina in the Central region where gold has been discovered. Lawyer Kwame Gyan said when a concession right is given to a miner, the traditional leader and indigenes can express their dissatisfaction over the contract but do not have the power to stop the operations, because the Law does not give them that power. He said this is the reason why the youth in mining areas resort to illegal mining, known in the local parlance as ‘Galamsey’ as a source of livelihood. He noted that because the traditional rulers do not have power on miners, some mining companies promise to give scholarship schemes to indigenes but fail to honour this promise and also refuse to employ the locals in their mining companies. He maintained that if Ghana wants the right things to be done as far as mining is concerned, parliamentarians should go back to the drawing board and have a second look at the Minerals and Mining Act passed in 2006. Meanwhile, Deputy Propaganda Secretary for the ruling National Democratic Congress, Solomon Nkansah, has blamed the rampant illegal mining in the country on what he termed “lackadaisical attitude of the Environmental Protection Agency,” (EPA). Solomon Nkansah alleged that some officials of the EPA have compromised their positions making it difficult for them to bring the miners to order when they flout the mining Law.