The Kumasi Police has scuttled a planned demonstration by small scale miners to protest the ban on their operations.

The demonstration which was supposed to have taken effect Tuesday had to be called off much to the disappointment of the miners.

The demonstrators do not understand why the government is still keeping the six months ban in place even when the period has elapsed.

They want the government to, with immediate effect, lift the ban on small scale mining in order for them to engage in legitimate business.

The six-month ban was imposed by the government as part of the desperate attempt to fight illegal mining which had desecrated the country’s environment.

Rivers have been polluted, trees felled, farms destroyed and the environment fouled by illegal small scale mining activities across the Ashanti, Eastern and Western Regions of Ghana.

On assuming office, the Nana Akufo-Addo government rolled out a plan to fight galamsey which has culminated into the anti-galamsey task-force.

As part of the plan, the government gave a three months ultimatum for all small scale mining activities to cease.

Even though Ghana’s mining laws allow small scale mining, most of them are reported to have drifted into the illegal mining and using unorthodox methods.

The government therefore imposed the six months ban to streamline activities of the small scale miners.

Members of the Small Scale Miners Association say the six months have elapsed and government must allow them to return to work.

They say school have opened and they need their source of livelihood back in order to provide for their children and family.

On Tuesday, a number of the miners trooped to Asokwa in red, ready to chant but were stopped by the police.

According to Luv FM’s Prince Appiah, the leadership of demonstrators are still negotiating with the police to allow them the opportunity to demonstrate.

It is not clear yet what the demonstrators have decided to do after the scuttled demonstration.