Minister Jumhur Warns Regional Governments Not to Neglect Environmental Issues

Environment Minister Jumhur Hidayat has warned city and district governments not to neglect environmental issues. Jumhur reminded them that there are legal consequences or environmental compensation if regional governments ignore environmental problems. “It could even lead to criminal charges, criminal charges. There is also environmental compensation. Even city and district governments that are negligent regarding waste issues, for example. The order from the law is that the mayor and regent are responsible for that,” Jumhur said on the Prime News programme on CNN Indonesia TV, Tuesday evening. Jumhur said he would not hesitate to impose sanctions on city and district governments deemed negligent on environmental issues. He stated that the Ministry of Environment has the right to issue instructions. Subsequently, the regional governments must comply with the instructions issued by the Ministry of Environment. “Well, if it turns out they are negligent, for example, there are some, almost 90 per cent of city and district governments we have sanctioned. The sanction there is like this: I give you a few months to do A, B, C, D, E and so on,” he said. Jumhur explained that if the regional government does not follow the instructions, the case could potentially be escalated to an aggravated status. “And the aggravation could lead to them becoming a suspect, something like that,” he said.