CARPENTERS FRUSTRATE K'SI ROADS PROJECT (BACK PAGE)

aCONTRACTORS working on the eastern corridor of the multi-million Ghana Cedi Kumasi Road Rehabilitation Project are becoming frustrated by the day as a stand-off between a section of the Anloga woodworkers and the city authorities over the relocation of the carpenters continues to delay the project.
While the master craftsmen at the Anloga cluster have agreed to relocate to the newly constructed wood village at Sokoban, the young ones among them who constitute the majority have defied the orders of the Kumasi Metropolitan Authority (KMA) to move.
They say the Sokoban Wood Village has been allocated to only the master craftsmen, while they had been ignored. They, therefore, called the action discriminatory.
The contractors working on the eastern corridor, which stretches from the Anloga Junction to the Timber Gardens at Asokwa, have a deadline to meet and believed the continued delay would pose problems for them.
Last Wednesday, the young wood workers organised a meeting where they served notice that they would not leave their operational area at Anloga until they had been allocated enough space at Sokoban to undertake their businesses.
This was happening at a time the Deputy Minister of Roads and Highways, Mr Rojo Mettle-Nunoo, was meeting the leaders of the wood workers in Kumasi in a bid to resolve the impasse.
Mr Mettle-Nunoo was trying to convince the wood workers to leave to Sokoban because the Asantehene had allocated additional land for them.
However, they insisted that since they had not seen any land, it would be difficult for them to move.
At one end, the KMA Chief Executive, Mr Samuel Sarpong, said it was illegal for the wood workers to refuse to leave since everything had been done to enable them to relocate.
As of press time yesterday, the Ashanti Regional Minister, Mr Kofi Opoku-Manu, was preparing to meet the wood workers in a bid to get them to rescind their decision.
Addressing the leaders of the carpenters last Wednesday, Mr Mettle-Nunoo told them not to do anything that would give the impression that they did not appreciate what Otumfuo had done for them.
The deputy minister said the government was determined to solve problems facing them so that they could go about their work without any difficulties.
He said the Kumasi road project was crucial to easing traffic in the city so that people could go about their activities without much difficulty.
Mr Mettle-Nunoo stated that plans were far advanced to prepare a business plan for the wood workers that would enable them seek to financial support from the banks to expand their businesses.