City vows to return land to nature

City vows to return land to nature

JAKARTA (JP): The Central Jakarta mayoralty will demolish a
house in the Cempaka Timur subdistrict for being built in a
prohibited green area.

The head of Cempaka Putih district, Isa Hamdani, said over the
weekend that the mayoralty issued a demolition letter dated Jan.
25. The house, on Jl. Cempaka Putih 33, will be pulled down by
the end of this month, he said.

Isa said that the mayoralty is trying to restore the function
of the area to improve the quality of the city's air through more
green areas.

"My office has sent written warnings and ordered the owner to
demolish the houses but the owner has not responded," Isa said,
adding that the house had no building permit.

The 200-square-meter house stands on 300 square meters of
land, which the mayoralty has designated as a green area in
Cempaka Putih.

Residents in the area have suggested that the city
administration use the area for a sports field.

Isa said that the owner of the land, Papang, claims to have
legal ownership documents, which he has never shown to city
officials.

City Parks Agency data shows that a total of 543,907 hectares
of green areas are being used for other purposes. Of the total,
306,649 square meters are in Central Jakarta, 81,423 square
meters are in North Jakarta, 43,463 square meters in West
Jakarta, 74,148 square meters in South Jakarta and 38,224 square
meters in East Jakarta.

According to Governor Surjadi Soedirdja, the city has 465
parks covering 3,300,0000 square meters of land, or 12 percent of
the city's land area. Ideally, he said, 30 percent of the city's
land should be used for open spaces and parks.

The city administration is having trouble reclaiming the green
areas because, ironically, many of the buildings standing on the
green areas have permits from the mayoralty offices.

The administration has decided to wait until the permits
expire. (yns)