Gayo Lues Regency prepares land rights release letters for permanent housing

Gayo Lues (ANTARA) - The Gayo Lues Regency Government in Aceh Province is preparing a scheme for issuing letters of land rights release from landowners as a form of legal certainty guarantee for the construction of permanent housing (huntap) for natural disaster victims in the area.

Gayo Lues Regent Suhaidi, when met by ANTARA at the Regent’s Official Residence in Blangkejeren on Sunday, said that this step is being taken so that huntap construction can be carried out immediately once budget certainty is available from the central government.

“We are pursuing letters of land rights release from landowners. This means that the land-owning residents have stated they have no objection to huntap being built on their land, and the local government is committed to providing compensation in accordance with applicable regulations,” said Suhaidi.

He explained that the characteristics of land in Gayo Lues are dominated by community-owned land, not state land or other land use areas (APL) of companies. This makes the land acquisition process the most crucial stage.

Although the coordinate points of the prospective huntap locations have been sent to the National Disaster Management Agency (BNPB) and the Ministry of Housing and Human Settlements (PKP), the local government is currently still awaiting certainty of land acquisition funds from the centre.

“If there is no budget from the centre, in the future we might be able to use Regional Transfer Funds (TKD) for this land acquisition. The implementation target is likely in 2027 or 2028,” he said.

Huntap is specifically intended for residents who are disaster victims whose homes have suffered severe damage, destruction, or were swept away. Before huntap is built, the victims are relocated to temporary housing (huntara).

There are 3,157 units of damaged houses in Gayo Lues, consisting of 279 units with severe damage, 197 units with moderate damage, and 2,012 units with minor damage. This data comes from the Task Force for Accelerating Rehabilitation and Reconstruction Post-Disaster in the Sumatra region.

Regarding the progress of temporary housing (huntara), Suhaidi revealed that its construction has reached 95 percent. Currently, some affected communities have started occupying huntara after handover by the Head of BNPB some time ago.

For the 38 family heads (KK) who have not yet entered huntara, the local government has placed them in the Training Centre Office (BLK) of the Gayo Lues Manpower Service with better facilities.

“The huntara locations generally use community land with a borrowing system without rent. Residents will continue to stay in huntara until their huntap construction is fully completed,” said Suhaidi.