Council approves bill on cemetary agency replanning
Council approves bill on cemetary agency replanning
JAKARTA (JP): The City Council approved yesterday a bill on
the restructuring of the City Cemetery Agency designed to improve
its services.
"The structure of the agency should be improved to support the
city administration's decision to make cemeteries into water
catchment areas," said Abdoelhamid Notowidagdo, secretary of the
City Council's Commission A, which is in charge of government
affairs.
He said that, under the new law, heads of the agency's branch
offices at the mayoralty level were no longer responsible to the
agency's chairman but, instead, to the city's five mayors.
Mayoralty branch offices are also given greater authority to
issue various permits, ranging from those concerning the use of
cemeteries to those authorizing the exhumation of human remains,
which used to be issued by the main office at City Hall.
"The simplification of the procedures is expected to improve
the agency's services," Abdoelhamid said, adding that the changes
included the reduction in the number of the agency's sections
from six to five.
Sri Umi Sutjipto, a member of Commission E, which is
responsible for social welfare, said that the bill changed the
agency's function, not only in relation to burials but also in
connection with the city's cemetery planning.
"This is in line with the city administration's plan -- to
change the city's cemeteries into the city's lungs and into parks
-- in which the agency can take part in the general planning of
the city cemeteries," Sri Umi said.
The city administration announced recently that first priority
would be given to the rearrangement of 10 cemeteries, namely
Bivak, Karet Pasar Baru Barat, Petamburan, Kawi-Kawi Kramat
Sentiong, Menteng Pulo, Utan Kayu, Penggilingan, Kober
Jatinegara, Cipinang Besar and Prumpung.
Currently, she said, the agency is managing 556 hectares of
cemeteries throughout the city, of which 92 hectares, considered
inconsistent with the city plan, will be phased out.
By the year 2005, however, the agency is expected to expand
the area of land utilized as cemeteries to about 700 hectares.
Both Commissions A and E proposed that the city administration
cooperate with the West Java provincial government in the
expansion of the cemetery areas.
The municipal administration has also been urged to enact a
regulation that every developer intending to appropriate land for
the development of a housing project set aside a plot for a
cemetery.
However, the city council has said that it realizes that the
agency is short of personnel and representative offices.
"The agency has only about 740 employees, including 256 grave
diggers," Abdoelhamid said.
He urged the agency to employ workers residing near the
cemeteries as grave diggers to make up the shortfall in laborers.
Sri Umi also urged the agency to cooperate more closely with
local workers by providing training courses on green cemeteries.
(yns)