Members of the Kumasi Metropolitan branch of the Ghana Federation of Disability Organisations have on Wednesday staged a demonstration to register their displeasure about the newly introduced District Assemblies Common Fund disbursement guidelines.
They have described the revised guidelines as discriminatory and therefore seeking for them to be scrapped immediately.
The group is also demanding for the immediate release of the share of the money.
The District Assemblies Common Fund Act (DACF) 1993 stipulates that 3 per cent of the fund is given to Persons with Disability to, among others, support their businesses.
The revised disbursement guidelines as announced by the Fund Administrator, Naa Torshie Addo, exempt people above 60 years and children below 18 years from benefiting from it.
Again, beneficiaries of the Fund, under the new guidelines, will no longer receive cash as was done in the past but rather the various assemblies will procure items and distribute to them.
The group says it cannot accept the modifications.
Speaking to the media, the Kumasi Metro President of the Ghana Federation of Disability Organisations, Prince Debrah, said the move has brought untold hardships to their members and they are unhappy about it.
The Chief Executive of the Kumasi Metropolitan Assembly, Osei Assibey Antwi, to whom the group presented a petition, explained that the modification of the guidelines is for their own good.
“What we observed in the past was that some of the physically challenged persons tend to spend the money given them instead of using it for a profitable venture.
“So we have now resolved to provide start-up items for the physically challenged to empower them,” he said.
He, however, assured them that their concerns will be forwarded to the appropriate quarters for redress.
By Antwi Boasiako & Ibrahim Abubakar |3new.Com|Ghana
The post PLWDs stage demo over new Common Fund disbursement guidelines appeared first on 3newsgh.
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