Tamale, Feb.1, GNA - The Tamale Metropolitan Assembly would on February 5, this year, begin a decongestion exercise to get rid of unauthorized structures and vendors on the streets to ensure order and sanity.

The Assembly has also recruited and trained persons as Environmental Sanitary Inspectors, popularly known as "Saman Saman" to ensure cleanliness in the metropolis.

Mr. Mohammed Amin Adam, Tamale Metropolitan Chief Executive (MCE), said this when he took delivery of some projects funded by the Assembly within the Tamale Metropolis on Wednesday.

The projects included a 425 million-cedi National Health Insurance Scheme (NHIS) block, a 467 million-cedi 20-seater KVIP for students of the Northern School Business and a 20-seater KVIP toilet facility for the Nyohini community built at the cost of 483 million cedis. The rest are: a 356 million-cedi classroom block built for the Ihyayideen Local Primary at Lamashiegu, a 155 million-cedi Solid Waste Holding Bay at "Victory" area, a 517 million-cedi office for the Tamale South Sub-Metro Assembly and an Assembly staff accommodation facility, which was completed at the cost of about 170 million cedis. Mr Adam said the decongestion became necessary due to the rampant springing up of unauthorized structures in the Metropolis and the use of pavements for hawking.

He said displaced hawkers would be relocated at a market at Kukuo and called on all to cooperate with Assembly during the exercise. He said sanitary inspectors would begin work in two months' and that those who would not observe environmental cleanliness would be fined according to the environmental laws of the metropolis. The MCE commended the contractors for completing the projects on time and advised those who worked on places of convenience to adopt modern technologies to ensure that many people patronized them. On the National Health Insurance Scheme, Mr Adam said the Metropolis had chalked success in its implementation, indicating that some 180,000 individuals had registered while 150,000 of them issued with ID cards.