Tenants on Saturday demanded an immediate stoppage of
increasing house rents at the will of the house owners.
At a press conference at the National Press Club, Tenants Council demanded that the house owners must provide the tenants with receipts of the payment of rents.They also demanded the operation of mobile courts to ensure the enforcement of the House Rent Control Act 1991.
Nearly 1.5 million people live in the capital and 95 per cent of them are low income people who are innocent victims of uncontrolled house rent, the organisation leaders said.
Tenants Council president Bahrane Sultan Bahar said that the people who lived in cities were being tortured by house owners in different ways due to lack of mechanism for the implementation of the 1991 act.
He urged the government to construct public housing colony for low income people in khas lands.
As there is no initiative for the implementation the House Rent Control Act 1991, the tenants do not know even the existence of rent controllers and even the people who knew about the law cannot seek any remedy due to complicated legal process, he said.
The council’s advisor Faruque Hossain, general secretary Jannat Fatema and joint general secretary Shahidul Islam were also present.
-With New Age input
