Poor coordination blamed for PLN cable dispute
TANGERANG (JP): A member of the National Commission on Human Rights said the placement of high voltage cables over the Ciledug Indah housing complex was due to a lack of coordination.
Area residents recently raised an outcry over the presence of the cables they said were causing health problems.
"I think the problem arose due to a lack of coordination between the Tangerang administration and the West Java provincial administration and the state-electricity company (PLN)," Brig. Gen. (Ret) Roekmini Koesoemo Astoeti said after attending a closed meeting with Tangerang Deputy Regent H.M. Nuhriana Husnadi on Tuesday.
Roekmini said that the Tangerang administration did not consult the West Java provincial administration when it issued a permit for the developer of the Ciledug Indah Housing estate, PT Duta Megah Perdana, in 1987.
Roekmini said the meeting revealed that the Tangerang administration did not know that the West Java administration had earlier issued another land use permit for PLN to put up the towers for the high voltage cable network in the Ciledug area.
The former Regent of Tangerang, Tadjus Sobirin, issued a permit for PT Duta Megah Perdana, a developer, to build a housing estate on a 20-hectare plot of land in Tangerang regency on Feb. 6, 1987.
Roekmini also said that the Tangerang administration has agreed to relocate the 120 residents of the Ciledug Indah housing estate, but the administration's plan is being hampered by financial problems and the scarcity of land.
Djoko Sugianto, another member of the commission, has asked PLN to temporarily turn off the electrical current flowing through the cables suspended over the housing estate.
Djoko's plea was rejected by the chief of PLN's office in Tangerang, Ali Herman, who said it is impossible to turn off the current because the towers are now being used by PLN to distribute electricity to other people living in the Ciledug area.
Ali said the height of the transmission towers has been raised from the original nine meters to 18 meters in an effort to resolve the matter.
In a hearing with Commission VI of the House of Representatives on Nov. 15, PLN president Zuhal said the installation of the high voltage cable network and towers in the Ciledug Indah housing complex could not jeopardize the health of the people living there.
One hundred and twenty residents of the Ciledug Indah housing estate in Tangerang went to the headquarters of the National Commission on Human Rights to complain about the bad effects of the high voltage cables suspended over their housing complex.
The residents said that they have physically suffered since PLN activated the 500,000-volt electric current flowing through cables suspended over their housing complex on Nov. 25
The residents complained of nausea, irregular heartbeats and skin irritations.
During an inspection of the site last Thursday, Roekmini and Djoko witnessed that a current tester lighted up when one of the Ciledug Indah residents touched it to a television antenna. (13/mas)