Firms deny role in alleged intimidation
Firms deny role in alleged intimidation
JAKARTA (JP): Two companies denied allegations yesterday that they had resorted to intimidation to force Pesanggrahan residents to sell their land to make way for a toll road in Bintaro, South Jakarta.
Executives of PT Bumi Serpong Damai (BSD) and PT Jaya Real Property (JRP), who are to build the toll road under a contract with the city administration, told the city council's Commission A and Commission D that their companies were not involved in the land appropriation process for the project. The appropriation of land was being handled by PT Jasa Marga, the state owned company assigned to manage all toll roads, they said.
"On the basis of an agreement with the government the land appropriation process is being handled by PT Jasa Marga, while PT Bintaro Serpong Damai is only responsible for the construction of the toll road," Iknes Kemalawarta, director of PT BSD, told the hearing.
Therefore, he said, the accusation that his company had intimidated residents was groundless.
Last January about 45 people, who claimed to represent 180 families in the Pesanggrahan subdistrict, filed a complaint with the city administration over the compensation they had been offered for the appropriation of their land.
The residents complained that the South Jakarta mayor had determined the compensation, which ranged from 165,000 to Rp 250,000 per square meter, without consulting them.
The residents demanded that the city administration pay compensation at the higher rate of Rp 700,000 to Rp 800,000 per square meter, noting that displaced residents in North Jakarta had received between Rp 640,000 and Rp 384,000 per square meter in the case of another toll road project.
The city administration plans to build a 13.1 km toll road on the land. The construction of the road is to be carried out by the two companies in cooperation with PT Jasa Marga.
Councilor M.U. Fatommy Asaari urged the executives to get involved in the land appropriation process as a means of dispelling the impression, widespread among the residents, that the companies were using the government to evict them.
Fatommy also asked the companies to follow proper procedures in appropriating city assets in the area.
Diaz Moreno, director of PT JRP, assured members of the two commissions that the company would help resolve the matter.
In a related development, Head of the City Sanitary Office M. Subasir told reporters at City Hall yesterday that a 11,000 square meter plot of land owned by the office would be appropriated for the toll road.
"We will not receive money as compensation because I have proposed that (instead) the companies give us plots of land in five mayoralties which will be used as garbage dumps," Subasir said.
He added that the office needed new temporary garbage dumps in the five mayoralties. "The garbage at the (new) dumps will later be transported to permanent sites in Pulo Gebang, East Jakarta," he said. (yns)