Land owners seek certainty in Islamic City
Land owners seek certainty in Islamic City
JAKARTA (JP): About 20 people requested the Islamic Village
Foundation developer to tell them yesterday about the status of
their land.
The location and rights of the land in Karawaci, Tangerang,
that they have bought since 1973 are unclear.
The land owners met yesterday to discuss the status of the
land they had bought from the foundation.
The meeting was organized by the Center of Information
and Management of Environment.
The center's chairman, Ilhamy Elias, said his sister and
brother had also bought land there. Around 200 people were
disappointed with the foundation.
Ilhamy said he feared he would be a target for disappointed
consumers because the developer, which had taken over the
foundation's land, had used his name. The land had changed hands
several times, he said.
The Islamic Village was renamed Vila Ilhamy by its developer,
PT Mustika Hadi Asri.
Last November, State Minister of Public Housing Akbar Tandjung
dedicated the 104-hectare housing development, in which all
houses would face west toward Mecca.
The foundation is chaired by Yunan Helmi Nasution, a preacher.
A foundation executive, Istiqnan Helmy Nasution, said in a
letter published in the Suara Karya daily on April 17 that the
foundation had appointed Mustika Hadi as the developer.
He said that the foundation had helped arranged 433 land title
documents. But those at yesterday's meeting were skeptical about
this figure.
They showed receipts, land and building permits and documents
from the foundation which they claimed gave them the right to
build houses.
They complained that since buying the plots they had been
asked to pay high additional costs to build infrastructure at the
site.
They said they had already paid the foundation a lot for
infrastructure and land titles.
Amir, one of owners, said the foundation told him that he
could sell the land back to them at a very low price if he
couldn't afford the additional costs.
Few people have built houses at the site, although schools,
hospitals, mosques and other public buildings have already been
built.
Several owners said they feared the foundation had sold their
plots to third parties.
Middle-class Moslems are buying more houses in housing
estates, which are often promoted in Koranic reading centers.
The government supports the establishment of new residential
areas, but has said it will take strong measures against
fraudulent developers or those delaying their projects beyond
agreed construction timetables. (03)