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)