Kelapa Gading residents sue Sutiyoso

JAKARTA: About 70 residents from Kelapa Gading, North Jakarta, rallied on Tuesday against Governor Sutiyoso's decision to allow the construction of a sports mall in an area designated to be used for the development of social facilities.

They made the protest at the Jakarta Administrative Court building in East Jakarta, which was hearing their lawsuit demanding the revocation of the gubernatorial decrees on the land use.

The decrees authorized Yayasan Darma Bakti Mahaka to build the Kelapa Gading International Basketball Complex on the 26,215 square meter plot of land on Jl. Kelapa Nias, Kelapa Gading.

One of the residents' lawyers, Carrel Ticulau, who also lives in Kelapa Gading, said the land should be used to build social facilities for the residents.

They also objected to the construction of the sports complex, which started earlier this year before the required environmental impact analysis was made, he said.

On Tuesday, Sutiyoso's lawyer, Alisan Tambunan from the city administration's legal bureau, told the state administrative court that there was nothing wrong with the decrees because the land belonged to the city administration. --JP