Kumasi (Ash), May 11, GNA- Madam Patricia Appiagyei, Kumasi Metropolitan Chief Executive (MCE) on Wednesday explained that the decongestion exercise currently being undertaken by the Kumasi Metropolitan Assembly (KMA) was not meant to punish petty traders. The exercise, she said, was aimed, among others, at enhancing the beautification of Kumasi and also to restore to the metropolis its status as the garden city of West Africa.

"Residents should therefore co-operate with the KMA and also be law-abiding to ensure the success of the exercise, instead of taking entrenched positions," she told newsmen in a briefing in Kumasi. Madam Appiagyei stated that in spite of the challenges the KMA may faced in the course of the programme, it had resolved to sustain the exercise, insisting that, " This particular decongestion would not be a nine-day wonder as happened previously".

The MCE expressed concern about the impunity with which residents flouted bye-laws of the KMA and warned that such attitudes could thwart efforts to giving the metropolis a face-lift.

On the second phase of the decongestion exercise, she said the assembly would concentrate much of its attention on removing illegal structures sited along ceremonial and principal streets in Kumasi.

The assembly, she said would also soon mount a serious operation aimed at removing illegal structures erected on water ways.

Madam Appiagyei said it was imperative that residents sought permission from the KMA before putting up structures at specific locations for trading so as to avoid situations where lands earmarked for development projects are always encroached