By Adama Makasuba
Honourable Madi Ceesay, the National Assembly member for Serrekunda West, has said he will table a private member bill that will seek to amend the country’s rent act before parliament next September.
“Just like I said in my campaign programme about the rent issue, I am still on it, but parliament goes into the process that any law you bring in should come as a bill. However, I will start it in September when we start our sessions. In that session I will make the foundation of the bill to revisit the 2014 rent act and it will take the format of a petition.
“So, there will be parliamentary questions and steps. In harness, I have started my consultation with some lawyers who are private and some are in the parliament to sound their ideas. This is not a new law, but the country has a rent act and we will just amend that act to suit The Gambian renting and the collectors. My effort is not to go against the landlord but this will help both sides to live in harmony and in a less disturbing situation,” he said.
Meanwhile, he added that going round the community one can see how the floods affect people because some families have no place to live due to how the flood destroyed their houses and foodstuff, this is disheartening and very sad.
He hopes that the government and financially able Gambians should come forward and support the affected people.
Honourable Ceesay said the President tour was not necessary because the issue of disaster is under the office of the vice president which should work in hand with the office of the national disaster management to support people. “The vice president came out of course, but the president should have just waited for the reports to take action,” he stated.
The reason for experiencing such floods, he said, is partly the government is responsible; also, Physical Planning should be blamed to an extent that it means there is no control over how people are building anywhere they get. He explains if Physical Planning is doing their work properly, they will give advice and approval to people who want to buy land to build their houses but people are just building freely in any place.
“My contention is that Physical Planning is partly responsible because the properties built on the waterways means they get the approval from Physical Planning. If what I am saying is not true, then let Physical Planning come out and refute my claim,” he continued.
