Nusron: Much of Batam's sea has been parcelled out without legal procedures

Minister of Agrarian Affairs and Spatial Planning (ATR)/Head of the National Land Agency (BPN) Nusron Wahid has stated that he has received numerous reports regarding sea areas that have been parcelled out without legal procedures in several regions, with the highest number of cases occurring in Batam City. “At present, a great deal of the sea has already been parcelled out, even sold or handed over to third parties. The most cases are in Batam, but there are also some in other areas,” Nusron said in Jakarta on Monday. According to him, the Ministry of ATR/BPN has received many complaints regarding the parcelling of sea areas in various regions, and he has therefore asked all parties to restore order. He said that the sea parcelling in Batam has violated existing regulations, given that not a single one of the eight required procedures was followed. Nusron explained that the Batam sea parcelling cases reported in the complaints involved the issuance of management rights (HPL), even though the process to obtain HPL is quite lengthy. According to him, HPL can only be obtained once a number of requirements based on various regulations have been met, and the process of utilising reclamation areas must be carried out in stages. These stages begin with the designation of the reclamation site, approval of the marine space utilisation activity suitability (PKKPRL), environmental approval, issuance of the reclamation permit, implementation and supervision of reclamation, verification of reclamation results, and finally the application for management rights (HPL). After the HPL is issued, land site designation and the granting of land rights can then be carried out. However, Nusron noted that in practice, several cases were found where land allocations were issued directly without going through these stages. “So now there are many incidents where, without a reclamation plan designation, without PKKPRL, without environmental approval and so on, a land allocation has already been made. This means procedures have been violated and eight stages have been skipped,” he said. Nusron stressed that the ATR/BPN Ministry is asking the relevant authorities in Batam and other areas to restore order, considering that the sea is a public space for ‘common use’, not private use. “If the sea and coast have been parcelled out without a PKKPRL permit or other permits and without reclamation, that is a seizure of ‘common use’ or public space for private interests, and that is not allowed,” he said.