Al Azhar school to be demolished

Al Azhar school to be demolished

BOGOR (JP): The Bogor mayoralty office will demolish the newly
constructed two-story Al Azhar school on Jl. Sindang Barang in
West Bogor for not having legal building permits, a mayoralty
official said on Friday.

"We have repeatedly told the school operator to complete the
necessary documents for the building. But they never took our
reminders seriously," the head of the mayoralty's buildings
supervision agency, Dody Rosadi, said.

He said the operator of the Muslim-based school, the Mandala
Foundation, had been given a number of warnings by authorities
since September last year.

The last warning was a written order from the mayoralty asking
the foundation to halt construction of the school.

However, the foundation failed to heed the order and completed
the construction, Dodi said.

The school has already begun enrolling students for the
upcoming school year. The building will contain a junior high
school, senior high school, economics high school and a technical
high school.

"I don't know whether the local office of the Ministry of
Education and Culture has already issued a letter of
recommendation to allow the school to enroll students," Dodi
said.

He said the ministry office should temporarily suspend the
school from operating in the absence of legal building permits.

Dodi said the school, built on an 8,000-square-meter plot, was
soundly constructed.

"The building has no problems at all. The only serious problem
is that the operator of the school has failed to complete the
required building documents." he said.

Quoting a ruling on building construction, Dodi said his
office had the right to demolish the building and fine the
building's owners.

No one at the Mandala Foundation could be reached for comment
on Friday,

Dodi said he understood the mayoralty's efforts to give the
foundation every opportunity to acquire the necessary permits
before demolishing the building, which could upset residents
because it was a school.

"I hope the school operator will complete the required
documents for the building," he said.(21/bsr)