Bogor crying out for undertakers
BOGOR: The town of Bogor is in dire need of undertakers who know how to tend to the dead in accordance with Islamic law.
Mayor Iswara Natanegara said on Tuesday that very few people were interested in learning the profession, Antara reported.
On average, there is only one undertaker assigned to each subdistrict, and they are usually very old, he said at the opening of a training seminar on how to tend to the dead here.
The seminar, held at the Islamic Education Foundation, was organized by the Communication Forum of the Tanah Sereal District Community and the local Muslim Ulema Council.
The organizer, Fachrudin Sukarno, said that 120 people from various places in Bogor had joined the training, which was much higher than the 75 participants that were estimated to attend from Tanah Sereal.
Among the topics covered, participants learned about prayers, signs that a person is about to die, the way to bathe corpses, wrap them in a shroud and how to bury them.
Participants also learned about wills and the inheritance law.--JP
;JP;ANTARA;SIM; ANPAj..r.. Focus-Hansip-demonstrators Community guards train for psy-ops JP/8/GREATER
Community guards train for psy-ops
JAKARTA: As many as 1,700 of some 30,000 community security guards who are members of the Hansip force in the city will receive training on how to handle demonstrators.
Among the subjects to learn are the mob psychology and techniques to calm down large groups and to find the provocateurs, Head of the City Public Order and People's Protection Office, Subagio, said Tuesday.
He made the statement after attending a ceremony to observe the 41st anniversary of Hansip with Minister of Home Affairs Hari Sabarno as the inspector, Antara reported.
Besides Hansip, there are more than 2,000 community guards called Banpol members assigned to the city's mayoralty offices and City Hall, Subagio said, adding that Banpol had 100 motorcycles which could be used as patrol vehicles.
The organization of Hansip was created on April 19, 1962 based on a decree from the minister of defense.
In its development, the city administration, through its decree No. 3/2001, put Hansip under the Public Order Office.
Jakarta has 29,680 Hansip members who receive a monthly salary of Rp 350,000 each. The administration plans to increase their wages to Rp 750,000 this year.
In 2003, the administration allocated Rp 5.5 billion for the City Public Order officers. As much as Rp 300 million is for street operations, especially against pak Ogah (amateur traffic regulators).--JP
;JP;BNT; ANPAj..r.. Focus-Manggarai-apartment City to build Manggarai apartment JP/8/GREATER
City to build Manggarai apartment
JAKARTA: The city administration will proceed with the construction of a low-cost apartment complex in Manggarai, South Jakarta, where about 4,000 people lost their houses to a fire last month.
However, a number of local residents have objected to the plan.
"They should realize that they have illegally occupied the land, and understand that this plan is for the betterment of their lives," Governor Sutiyoso was quoted by Antara as saying here on Tuesday.
He added that with the apartment complex, the residents would receive legal status and thus, they would have a chance to improve their welfare.
Sutiyoso claims that only a minority of local residents rejected the plan.
He also denied suggestions that the chosen site was part of a plan to develop an integrated Manggarai train station as proposed by Siti Hardiyanti Rukmana, or commonly known as Mbak Tutut.
"We have found that it would be impossible to materialize the plan, so we've dropped it," he said. -- JP