Accra, Oct. 19, GNA - The Mayor of Accra, Stanley Adjiri Blankson on Thursday called for effective collaboration between traders and the Assembly to help to bring sanity to the Accra Central Business District (CBD).

He also called for total support during next month's decongestion exercise, which he said, would remain so forever and that those who would fall foul of the law would be prosecuted.

In a speech read on his behalf at a meeting between Accra Central Shop Owners Association and the Accra Metropolitan Assembly (AMA), the Mayor urged shop owners not to allow traders to display their wares in front of their shops after the exercise.

The meeting, which was at the instance of the Executives of the Association, was to address discrepancies in Business Operating Permit Fees and policies of the AMA.

He said the exercise would among other things do away with activities that sought to hamper access way to their shops.

He said for now only registered traders would be accommodated at the Pedestrians Shopping Mall at Odawna, near kwame Nkrumah Circle and noted that subletting of the stalls would not be entertained by the AMA. Vice Chairman of the Association, Mr John Owusu Duodu, asked the Mayor to look into discrepancies in permit fees, which allowed some shop owners to pay 290,000 cedis while others, paid 520,000 cedis saying, this had created problems for them.

"The sudden increase from 150,000 cedis to 520,000 cedis is indeed a big leap", he said, and noted that during the operations of the AMA Taskforce to collect the fees from defaulting members, they coerced members with armed Policemen and collected far above what had been agreed upon at a stakeholders meeting making them unfortunate victims of unfair treatment. Mr Duodo, therefore, called on the AMA to involve the Leadership in consultative meeting to enable them to reach some understanding on the bill before the 2006 bills were circulated. He recalled a similar situation that happened to electrical dealers some three years ago where the extra payment was credited to them against the following year and said the same should be done for them. He pledged the Association's readiness to respond positively and promptly to any request from the AMA that would be of mutual benefit and also asked the Mayor to forgive them for the insult and accusation traded against him.