Bogor mayor warns of starvation

BOGOR (JP): Bogor Mayor Eddy Gunardi underlined the importance of paying more attention to the possibility of starvation in the city on Wednesday.

Speaking at a ceremony to appoint 18 new village heads for the 1998/2006 term at the mayoralty office, Eddy urged all village heads here to be proactive in fighting the possibility of starvation, which has arisen because of the scarcity of staple foods.

"You have to be more active in gathering information on conditions in your village, both from the heads of neighborhood units and community leaders. If necessary, you yourselves should visit the houses of people facing starvation directly," he said.

He said that if they found any indication of starvation they should take immediate action to get rid of it.

On Monday, dozens of residents of Kencana village visited the mayoralty office and demanded that the mayor overturn the appointment of Diding A. Mukri as village head on the grounds that his education certificate from an Islamic High School was fake.

This accusation was strongly denied by the head of administrative affairs in the village, Edgar Suratman.

"The certificate is authentic and has been verified by the West Java office of the Ministry of Religious Affairs," Edgar said. (24/jun)