By: Kebba AF Touray
Hon. Madi Ceesay, Member for Serrekunda West, has called on Stakeholders to ensure proper town planning in both the urban and rural areas, to avert future infrastructural problems.
This, he said, hampers the movement of vehicles in the areas, especially in the rainy season and cautioned for proper town planning to avert congestion in the rural areas in the few years to come, as this incurs government additional expenses.
He said this during the adjournment debate of the legislature on Friday 4th October 2019.
He said given the dense population of his constituency, the movement of vehicles became a challenge for the residents, which he attributed to poor town planning.
He urged the government to consider proper town planning in the rural area, with a view to averting the replication in the rural area of the congestion in the urban area.
He said Government should also consider planning in the rural area as they are increasingly expanding.
“If they are not properly planned, the condition in the urban area will soon spill over to the rural area,” he opined.
He added: “Our villages are developing if we do not think in advance, the type of congestions we are having in the urban area, will come to fruition in the rural areas in the near future.
He called on the Ministry responsible for planning settlements to consider planning ahead.
Ceesay opined that if they want to wait until there is congestion, they would have to widen the streets which would require additional expenses, because the compounds that would be affected will be compensated.
On the issue of the diplomatic passports, he challenged the authorities to develop regulation that will guide the issuance of diplomatic passports.
He indicated that in less than three years, a total of more than one thousand diplomatic passports have been issued.
He stressed “Many of these passports are not in proper hands. I recognized the effort the government and the Foreign Affairs are doing to investigate the matter, but the parliament should set up a committee and do its own independent investigation on the diplomatic passport scandal”.
He disclosed that President Barrow, Ousainou Darboe and an Ambassador are given two different passports, but stated that these people are entitled to diplomatic passport.
He inquired: “The reason why they are given two different diplomatic passports could be explained, but for me the scandal is that of those who are holding the diplomatic passport and are not entitled to diplomatic passport. This needs to be investigated by the proposed legislative committee and give a tangible report on the issue”.
