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)