The Minister for Environment, Local Government and Rural Development, Stephen Asamoah-Boateng says metropolitan and municipal assemblies embarking on decongestion exercises have the blessing of the Government to see the exercises through. Most metropolitan and municipal assemblies are decongesting to rid their metropolis of filth in preparation for the Golden Jubilee celebrations of Ghana’s Independence. In Accra, city authorities have relocated hawkers from the streets and pavements in the Central Business District to the new pedestrian shopping mall near the Kwame Nkrumah circle. And in Kumasi, metropolitan authorities served notice to petty traders to leave the city centre ahead of a massive clampdown on hawking in the area. Similar attempts in the past to decongest the cities were not successful because they were believed to have done some political damage to the government. However the AMA said it was determined to sustain the current campaign. Asked if the AMA would succeed this time, Asamoah-Boateng said there was no other option than to carry it to its logical conclusion and assured that the current exercise required a wholehearted approach. He said the AMA had the capacity to handle it and in line with the Government’s decentralisation policy, the local authorities would be left to handle it. “My support is total and it is the same thing with central government and there is no question at all that we support what is going on.” Asamoah-Boateng said the effective implementation of by-laws, coupled with the cooperation of the general public and the media was key if a success story was to be written at the end of the day.