City Hall urged to review agrement on land barter

JAKARTA (JP): Three political factions at the City Council have urged the city administration to review its ruilslag (Dutch term used for land barter agreement) system in an effort to stop the city from losing any more of its property.

The ruling Golkar faction stated on Thursday that the city administration should create a visual information system to control its property.

"An information system is needed to enable the city to easily control its inventory and to protect its property," said Soegiyo, a member of the Golkar faction.

A school building and sub-district offices owned by the city have been demolished by developers to make way for modern buildings.

The school were torn down even though the developers had not finished building a new one on an alternate site.

The Armed Forces faction also demanded that the ruilslag system be replaced with the build-operate-and-transfer scheme in order to relieve the city's suffering from lost property.

"The most important thing is that the city administration does not suffer losses from the demolition of its property," Nawadji, spokesman for the Armed Forces faction, said.

The Indonesian Democratic Party (PDI) requested that the city administration be more strict when implementing the ruilslag system.

"It is our responsibility to save the city properties. The governor himself admits the great losses stemming from this system," Sahala P. Sinaga, a member of PDI faction, said.

The three factions also urged the city administration to penalize developers who fail to construct projects on designated plots of land, regardless if they have received the land appropriation permits or not.

"The city administration's decision to involve many parties in helping develop the capital city is correct, but it has to impose stricter penalties on developers who do not fulfill their obligations," Soegiyo said.

A member of the PDI said that between 1971 and 1994 the city administration has issued 536 land permits, covering 9,137 hectares of land, for condominiums to office buildings. (yns)