Land for cemetery disputed

Land for cemetery disputed

JAKARTA (JP): A City Council faction has urged the governor to settle the dispute over a 16-hectare plot which was earmarked to become a cemetery in Kapuk Muara, West Jakarta.

Romulus Sihombing, secretary of the Indonesian Democratic Party faction at the council, said over the weekend that the city administration had not keep its promise to use the plot as a cemetery. Instead a private company is going to develop the land.

Local residents visited the council on Thursday seeking help over the problem. They accused administration officials of cheating them.

The land formerly belonged to local inhabitants. In 1971 the administration appropriated the land, saying that a public cemetery would be built on the plot.

The subdistrict head said at the time that the land owners could later reclaim the land if the administration used the land for commercial purposes.

The residents agreed and gave up the land for between Rp 400 and Rp 600 per square meter.

Some years after, the residents heard that the city administration had handed over the plot to private contractor PT Grisenda through a barter deal.

Sihombing said that the barter deal was legally made by the city administration and the City Council approved the deal.

"The City Council was not informed about the subdistrict head's promise that the land owners were entitled to claim back the land if the plot was used for commercial purposes rather than a public cemetery. I am sure that the governor did not know of the unwritten agreement," Sihombing said.

He said those providing councilors and the governor with incomplete information deserve punishment. (09)