Four Dairi subdistricts want new regency

Four Dairi subdistricts want new regency

JAKARTA: Four subdistricts of Dairi regency in East Sumatra
want to establish a new regency as their way of spurring the
development process in the area, a noted public figure from the
Pakpak community said here on Thursday.

Jansen Sinamo, the chairman of Bapepadi (Dairi Development
Monitoring Society), said that a number of representatives from
the four subdistricts met with all factions of the House of
Representatives on Thursday.

"They (House members) all support our plan to establish the
new regency. They've also promised to help us in realizing the
plan," he told The Jakarta Post on Thursday.

He claimed that the idea of establishing the new regency came
from the general public, who were not satisfied with the current
level of development in the area. If realized, the two regencies
(Dairi and the new regency) would become part of the proposed
province of East Sumatra.

Dairi Regent M.P. Tumangger said that he did not object to the
new regency plan. "That's the will of the people in the four
subdistricts. We cannot deny it. Instead we ought to support it,"
he said.

The new regency would be called Pakpak Barat Regency and would
include the subdistricts of Kerajaan, Salak, Sitelu Tali Urang
Jehe and Silimapungga-pungga.

J. Padang, one of those who initiated the campaign for the new
regency, said that in the Pakpak language, Barat means "model".
With such a name, he expressed the hope that the new regency
would always be a model for others to follow.

Padang also claimed that the plan had come from the grassroots
in the four subdistricts. "It's not a top-down approach from a
group of elite people in the area," he said, adding that with the
new regency they would be able to accelerate development there
and empower the Pakpak community, which until now had been
sidelined in Dairi regency's development program. --JP