A resident of Elubo has expressed grave dismay about the 'galamsey' activities happening in and around the community.

Augustine Boah who is also the Western North Regional Correspondent for Adom FM, said authorities in the Elubo and Juaboso districts have turned a deaf ear to the matter.

According to him, many protests and attempts by the residents to put a stop to the ‘galamsey’ activities have not yielded results because some of the miners “have certain powers backing them.”

This, he said has made living in Juaboso difficult for the residents.

“Talking about galamsey in Elubo and Juaboso districts it is very obvious to say that in the district, which is the Juaboso township, the activity is ongoing. Residents have been protesting and taking a lot of actions against the activity but it yields no result,” he told Sampson Lardy Anyenini in an interview on Newsfile on Saturday.

“It is like the residents are doing their part to stop these activities but the authorities to intervene, to speak, to calm those miners down, we do not see those acts so the illegal mining activity keeps going on in Juaboso.”

He also alleged that some residents have yielded their lands to the illegal miners to carry on with the activities.

Augustine Boah while describing the situation at some galamsey sites in the community said, “right now when you go to the community, they have dug some big holes, some in the precincts of the compound, back of their houses, so you can see a crack in their building. About two-thirds of the buildings around are affected now due to the activities ongoing.”

Meanwhile, the Ministry of Lands and Natural Resources has instituted a new raft of measures to aid the fight against the menace.

These new measures came up after the Minister for Lands and Natural Resources, Samuel Abu Jinapor chaired a meeting with some stakeholders on Friday to review the various steps and strategies that have been implemented so far in the fight against the menace.

After an extensive meeting by the Committee, the new measures included;

• River Bodies and Forest Reserves continue to be Red Zones. Accordingly, no mining operation is permitted in or around any River Body in the country, and reconnaissance, prospecting and/or exploration activities continue to be banned in Forest Reserves, except in exceptional circumstances.

• Operation Halt II will ramp up its support to the various measures being implemented to clamp down on illegal mining.

• The enforcement efforts will be pursued relentlessly without regard to any political, social or economic standing of the persons involved. This will be done transparently and with the highest standards of integrity, candour and utmost good faith.