Many buildings on Pulau Seribu unlawful
Many buildings on Pulau Seribu unlawful
JAKARTA (JP): Many buildings in the privately owned Seribu
islands are unlawful as they have no permit, and the owners do
not have a certificate granting them the right to use them, an
official said.
"Many of them do not have the documents because they (the
owners) never applied for the papers," Head of the Association of
Seribu Islands Tourism Djafar Tirtosentono told Antara on Sunday.
He called upon the city administration to pay serious
attention to the issue, especially as the status of the islands
will be upgraded, from a district to a regency, beginning Aug.1.
He said that a total of 44 out of 110 islands in the district,
located north of Jakarta, are owned by business magnates,
including Probosutedjo, Bambang Trihatmojo and Siti Hardiyanti
"Tutut" Rukmana, who are all closely related to former president
Soeharto, and Pontjo Sutowo, Tommy Winata, Ciputra and Surya
Paloh.
The government should take firm measures against the
violations, which have been so far been ignored, especially by
the New Order administration, he said.
As for those who own the right to use the land or buildings,
Djafar said that in the future, the government should be very
careful in extending the validity of the documents, which usually
last for 10 years.
The authorities should ensure that they can recover their
rights to the islands and use them for the benefit of the public.
"Don't repeat past (mistakes)," he said.
Even though it is called "seribu" or "a thousand" islands,
there are only 110 islands in the site, which covers a total of
69,976 square kilometers, including 9,214 square kilometers of
land.
Only 60 percent of the area could be developed, Djafar said.
According to a decree issued by the Ministry of Forestry, the
area is divided into four zones: main, protected, supporting and
utilized.
The main zone should not be developed at all, the protected
zone could be developed under special circumstances, while the
supporting zone covered islands which are inhabited. Only the
last one, the utilized zone, could be developed.
"There are only 44 islands in that zone, which all belong to
conglomerates," he said.
Most of the islands have been developed into holiday resorts.
To develop the islands, the owner should have made an
environmental impact analysis and asked the city's urban planning
department for approval of the block plan, and sought a permit
from the governor to utilize the land before he could obtain the
building and use permits.