KMA to wage war against defaulters
The Metropolitan Chief Executive of the Kumasi Metropolis, Mr Kojo Bonsu, has hinted that the assembly will soon wage war against all individuals, companies, businesses and institutions that refuse to pay their business operating permits, daily tolls and property rates to the assembly.
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The assembly has, therefore, set March 31, 2014 as the deadline for institutions, businesses and individuals to voluntarily settle their taxes owed the assembly to avoid being compelled to pay or face the laws of the land.
Mr Bonsu disclosed this at a maiden public forum organised by the KMA at the Oforikrom Sub-Metro to interact and seek the views and challenges confronting the people in the sub-metro.
The KMA is organising the forum to ensure that the populace in the metropolis is able to contribute their views and challenges to the KMA to be factored into its planning to develop the metropolis.
It would be recalled that last year, the KMA embarked on similar operations with its task force, which led to some institutions such as Glo, Vodafon, other hotels and hostels being locked for defaulting in the payment of their taxes and rates.
The mayor urged the various business institutions to co-operate and support the KMA by voluntarily paying their taxes to enable them to also raise funds to provide the needed projects and meet the social needs of the people.
Mr Bonsu lamented the regular intervention of some chiefs in the metropolis who come pleading for culprits each time they came face to face with the laws of the land.
“I can tell you that one of the reasons for the slow development of the metropolis is due to the activities of some chiefs who are doing things contrary to the laid down development scheme of the metropolis,” he said.
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That, he said, was not only bad but was aslo impeding progress and appealed to such chiefs to, in the interest of the development of the city, desist from such bad acts and allow such lawbreakers to face the laws of the land to deter others from wrongdoing.
He appealed to such chiefs to educate their subjects to be of good behaviour, since the laws of the land would not spare any one because of his or her religion or political affiliation.
Sanitation
Basically, other major issues raised at the forum centred on sanitation.
While some suggested how sanitation issues should be handled in the metropolis, others suggested that the contract of the various waste management institutions be either abrogated for non-performance or given to others who could do the jobs better.
Road construction
Most chiefs who spoke at the forum talked about roads in their communities. Others also called on the KMA to redouble its effort at improving road networks in the various residential areas to save them from dust and the difficulty of using such roads.
Extension of electricity to new sites
There were also many contributions from people concerning the need for electricity to be extended to new sites in their communities since lack of light had been identified as one of the causes of armed robbery in such areas.
The Member of Parliament for Oforikrom Constituency, Madam Elizabeth Agyemang, in a solidarity message, commended the mayor for the listening tour to enable the residents to, apart from interacting with him, bring their challenges to his attention.
She appealed to the government to, as a matter of urgency, construct an overpass at the Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology (KNUST) junction to avert the regular knocking down of pedestrians by vehicles.