Bogor continues to demolish illegal Puncak buildings

BOGOR, West Java (JP): Demolishing of houses and villas without building permits in Puncak is still going on to prevent further damage of the water catchment area.

Following a national drive to preserve Puncak since the floods which hit Jakarta early this year, Bogor is working hard to keep up with its earlier target to demolish 150 buildings known to lack permits.

But yesterday spokesman Denny M. Moechri said the number actually reaches hundreds of buildings.

The 81 buildings demolished in the past five months "reach only 15 percent," he told The Jakarta Post yesterday.

"We have also seized more than 100 hectares plot of land" besides weekly demolishing of buildings, he said.

Denny pointed out that unlike in the past, the authorities actions are now apparently more heeded by the public.

"New buildings used to emerge once we finished demolishing others," he said.

He explained the demolished buildings are those built on plots of land either belonging to the state, located on water catchment areas or erected without proper building permits.

He said the city will soon embark on a greening program.

This is an effort to prevent plots of land from being used by unscrupulous parties to erect "illegal" buildings again.

"We will begin the program next month. We have prepared 30,000 trees, mostly casuarina (fir trees)," Dennny said.

'Strong people'

Asked if the administration have had difficulties demolishing houses owned by "strong people" with relations to high-ranking and influential officials, Denny said, "So far so good. Until now things have been running smoothly. No major hitches."

He acknowledged that there were several houses said to be owned by high-ranking officials.

"But when we contacted the officials concerned they said the houses did not belong to them."

He did not rule out the possibility that the houses in question did belong to those officials. "Perhaps they feel uneasy to claim that the houses were theirs."

Dennny said the city issues three warnings to the owners of the illegally built houses before demolishing them.

"The first warning contains an order asking the owners to demolish their houses themselves. If they ignore the warning we issued the second warning stating that the administration will do the demolition. If this was still ignored we issue a demolition order telling the owners the date of the demolition," he said.

This policy, according to Denny, is wise enough.

"We could have been more stern by bringing them to court. They could have been charged with destroying the environment." (21/bas)