The
Kumasi Metropolitan Assembly (KMA) has indicated that its decongestion
taskforce will employ “reasonable force” to evict traders and transport
operators occupying unauthorized places within the city.
The
taskforce, in enforcement of the Assembly’s bye-laws, is also mandated to
confiscate wares and haul recalcitrant traders before the courts for
prosecution.
To ease movement of human and
vehicular traffic, the Assembly has issued a two week ultimatum for the traders
to voluntarily relocate to the newly constructed Afia Kobi Market and other
markets within the metropolis.
Areas earmarked for decongestion include the central business districts of Adum, Kejetia and the Central Market areas, the Bantama main street, parts of Suame and Kronum. Metro Mass Transit buses and other cargo truck operators at Dunkirk and Pampaso are also directed to vacate the areas before the February 4, 2013 deadline.
Areas earmarked for decongestion include the central business districts of Adum, Kejetia and the Central Market areas, the Bantama main street, parts of Suame and Kronum. Metro Mass Transit buses and other cargo truck operators at Dunkirk and Pampaso are also directed to vacate the areas before the February 4, 2013 deadline.
According to the KMA’s Public
Relations Officer, Godwin
Okuma-Nyame, the assembly needs public support to
succeed in the decongestion exercise.
Metropolitan
assemblies in Ghana are faced with the persistent challenge of keeping
hawkers off the pavements as the traders always returned to settle on the
pavements.
A
directive by the Accra Metropolitan Assembly (AMA) for hawkers to vacate the
pavements expired on Monday but the traders have remained adamant.
 Some
officials have stated that the decongestion exercise remains a process and
not an event, hence the need for the authorities to re-strategize as to how
best to clear offenders off the streets and the pavements, anytime they come
back to the streets to sell. |
In
Kumasi, the local assembly has been cited for blame in supervising the
construction of stores and other building complexes in the already congested
city centre.
But
Mr. Okuma-Nyame will not agree to this, stating that “people cannot use that as
an excuse to say that because there are lot of buildings around Kejetia and
Adum that is the cause of the decongestion there”.
He
believes the construction of the Afia Kobi Market, which is close to the
central business district, is indicative of the Assembly’s quest to decongest the
city.
Story
by Kofi Adu Domfeh
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