Mr John Tia Akologo, the Minister of Information, on Tuesday assured landlords in the Upper East Region that the government would compensate them for any land it might acquire for development projects. He told them not to entertain any fears that they would be ignored once the land is put to use. He said it was important that development projects got started on time rather than delayed because of prolonged negotiations over compensation. Mr Akologu said this when he paid a courtesy call on the Bolga Naba, Naba Martin Abilba 11, in Bolgatanga. "This region needs a lot of work to develop and we should be eager to welcome good programmes that would improve the lives of the people, so I will advise that we put aside long negotiations to allow the projects to take root whilst talks on compensation go on". Mr Akologu is on a three-day visit to the upper East Region on a tour of agencies under the Ministry of Information. He appealed to all chiefs in the region to help educate the people to understand that it was important to show interest in the development of the region. The Minister said the implementation of the Savannah Development Authority would bring development projects to the region and the cooperation of all the people would be needed to make it successful and beneficial to the people. Naba Martin Abilba said it was not right to retard government's efforts to develop the area and that he would sensitize his people to desist from that. Mr Akologu later visited the various media houses to acquaint himself with their working conditions and see how best they could be assisted to make their work less stressful and more effective. He expressed concern that some media reports went beyond sensationalism and had destructive tendencies and that was not good for the country. The Minister appealed to journalists to educate the public on development projects being carried out by the government so that the people would understand what was happening and participate in activities that are meant to benefit them. The Regional Minister, Mr Mark Woyongo, urged journalists to be balanced in their reportage and not to allow the urge to excite overshadow the interest of the region. The media houses the minister visited included the Ghana News Agency, Ghana Broadcasting Corporation, Information Services Department, Ghanaian Times and the Daily Graphic. The Minister also met with those in the private media. Source: GNA