KMP mops up Central Business District

Metropolitan Assembly, backed by military personnel on Wednesday undertook a mop-up exercise at parts of the Central Business District to clear and arrest recalcitrant hawkers who have returned to where they were evicted from.

The hawkers were seen running away from the pursuing armed soldiers and the KMA task force around the K O Methodist and the Morocco areas, leaving their wares behind. Some of them fell into open drains sustaining injuries in the process.

The KMA has already served notice that it is determined to carry out a successful and sustained decongestion exercise in the Kumasi metropolis this time around. An earlier exercise undertaken by the KMA last year was aborted after the assembly had spent close to ¢1 billion. The KMA has extended the exercise to the ceremonial roads leading to the city all in a bid to beautify the metropolis.

The KMA Chief Executive, Patricia Appiagyei has said no amount of interference would compel the KMA to abandon its mission to inject sanity into the central business district.

The Statesman has learnt that the next stage would see the decongestion exercise being undertaken in the sub-metropolitan areas.

Meanwhile the exercise has received mixed reaction from the general public. Whilst most people acknowledge the importance of the exercise, others are of the opinion that those affected should have been given the opportunity to remove their property before being destroyed. Politics has also not been left out of the debate, with the opposition National Democratic congress accusing the KMA of being insensitive to the plight of the hawkers.