By Michael Odiah
The Delta State Commissioner for Economic Planning, Dr Kingsley Emu has said that at the pace at which the State Government is running its affairs, it is most likely to have a supplementary budget, adding that contractors are now smiling home and more committed to their work as their payments now come at due point.
Dr Emu disclosed on Thursday, April 13 2018, during the ongoing ministerial press briefing targeted at briefing the press on the activities the various ministries in the State, stressing that “the work we are doing is enormous and that the state has been turned into a quality construction site” adding that this quality has been engineered by the recently introduced “citizen’s participation in budget preparation process” whereby a citizen can take ownership of the project in their locality, to ensure that contractors work strictly in accordance with project specification.
Dr Emu further said that the State Government has plans to erect two pedestrians walk ways at Koka and Summit junction in the State Capital to help prevent the dangers posed on pedestrians who use the expressway mostly school children and in extension, has also gone ahead to seek for land to site schools, markets for residents on the Ibusa, Oko axis as a means of extending the dividends of democracy to all nooks and crannies of the capital territory.
The Economic Commissioner who shared in the pains of residents in Asaba over the ongoing construction of the Storm Water Drainage Project which he said is currently bringing discomfort to Deltans, assured that it would last for one year but in the end will bring below minimum the issue of flooding in the State Capital.
Taking cognizance of the latest downpour, Emu said that unlike before the rainfall would have flooded the capital city of Asaba but barely took an hour to flow out smoothly, “at this point then imagine when the drains are complete”, adding that the contractors are painstakingly doing everything humanly possible to link up all the drainages both new and old in Asaba to engineer a flood free Capital city.
Speaking further, Dr Emu said that the Contributory Health Scheme was now more robust, noting that it covers all packages of health care policies. He stated that with available data, that the state has had a 70% budget performance over the past year, taking cognizance of the International Best practices in Budget preparation processes to enhance the passing and achievement of the State Budget which the Delta state government has adopted.
