KMA Begins Decongestion Exercise Of Central Business District

The Kumasi Metropolitan Assembly (KMA) has commenced the much-awaited decongestion exercise to rid the Central Business District of hawkers and petty traders. This came at the end of the one-week ultimatum given to the traders to move to the Race Course, New Tafo and the Kwadaso satellite markets. HelloFm's Reporter, Sampson Nyamekye, reporting live from the scene says some of the affected traders wept uncontrollably as they saw their structures being mangled. The exercise is part of an intervention to ensure free vehicular and human movement in the Metropolis. According to him, the Metropolitan Chief Executive (MCE),Mr Samuel Sarpong, led the Assembly�s Task Force to pull down illegal structures in front of the main railways station, Krobo Odumase, Alabar and Pampaso. The traders had earlier declared their resolve to defy the KMA�s directive, insisting that the Assembly had not made alternative arrangements to resettle them. Sampson Nyamekye reports that the Assembly�s City Guards were under instructions to stop the traders and hawkers from returning to the pavements and those who proved recalcitrant were dealt with in accordance with the law. "The exercise would be sustained to ensure that Kumasi was decongested to enhance its scenic beauty," the MCE said. In a related development, Mr. Kwabena Frimpong, Ashanti Regional Chairman of the United Petty Traders Association of Ghana, has told the Ghana News Agency that he was shocked at the KMA�s decision to go ahead with the decongestion. �We have appealed to the Assembly to allow us up to December, and all of a sudden, we are being thrown out. It is absolutely unbelievable and surprising, the way things have turned.� Mr. Frimpong said many of their members were now helpless and frustrated since they had nowhere to go and called on the KMA to as a matter of urgency to find a way to get them a place to ply their business. The KMA has allocated about GH�40,000 for the exercise.