City speeds up process of 63,000 land titles

JAKARTA (JP): The National Land Agency (BPN) will speed up the processing of some 63,000 land certificates in 12 of Jakarta's subdistricts, an official said over the weekend.

Head of BPN's city office, Rizal Anshari, told reporters that the move was part of the office's plan to improve services for low-income land owners who do not have sufficient legal land documents.

Rizal said that the land certificate program, called the Administration Land Project, started last July. The project had completed its first 1,000 land certificates in the Srengseng Sawah and Jagakarsa subdistricts in South Jakarta.

"Jagakarsa and Srengseng Sawah are our pilot project areas. There are wide plots of land there and most of the owners do not have sufficient documents, because most of them... do not care about land documentation," Rizal said.

A total of 63,000 certificates are projected to be processed by December 1998. The 12 subdistricts are currently being studied, he said.

The Administration Land Project in Greater Jakarta is co- sponsored by the World Bank and the Australian government.

The project had already processed certificates in Tangerang, Bekasi and Bogor starting in 1994. Jakarta was the last area to start the program, Rizal said.

"The project is aimed to help people get legal documents through a quick, easy and affordable service," he said.

People only had to pay Rp 11,500 (US$3) for the processing of a land certificate from their old land document called Girik and Rp 26,000 for a certificate allowing rights to build from the older Hak Guna Bangunan certificates.

Officials have been recording over the last two years prospective residents who want to process land titles.

"All of the expenses from measuring the plot to the final mapping of the land are paid by the office," he said.

The program aimed to erase public impressions that processing a land document was time consuming and expensive, he said.

"We really want to help low-income people who cannot afford processing their land documentation."

"Basically we want to concentrate on documenting land in suburban places in Jakarta, such as the Kalisari area in East Jakarta. Why suburban? Because most of the villagers who live there are blind about the importance of having a legal land document.

"They are targets of land brokers or developers who can easily cheat them," Rizal said.

Land documentation has become a serious issue due to rising cases of land document manipulation.

"Land has become so expensive in Jakarta. The rapid growth of the city's development encourage people to do anything -- even through illegal actions such as forging documents -- to get a plot of land," Rizal said.

Recently President Soeharto ordered State Minister of Agrarian Affairs Soni Harsono to step up efforts to eradicate increasingly rampant land title forgeries and punish those found guilty of the crime.

Reports have indicated that in Bekasi alone at least 200 documents had been falsified through sophisticated forgery techniques.

Rizal admitted that it was difficult to deal with the culprits because it was hard to prove the illegal action.

He also urged people to be brave enough to report any manipulative actions and promised to punish guilty parties.

"We are trying to improve our professionalism. Hopefully, with the land titles project we can manage to give the best service to the public," he said. (edt)