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)