Probe against Tangerang mayor sought

TANGERANG: Some 150 residents of Bencongan subdistrict, in Curug district of Tangerang regency staged a rally at the Tangerang Prosecutors Office on Wednesday, demanding that the investigation into Mayor Mochamad Thamrin be started soon.

The residents, grouped in the Combined Peoples Action for Constitution, Corruption Collusion and Nepotism (Garuk) believed that the mayor had misappropriated land submitted by developer Gading Serpong Housing for public facilities to the regency administration when he was still the regency administration secretary.

Garuk also urged the prosecutors office to investigate an alleged mark up of the land prices from Rp 50,000 to Rp 100,000 per square meter.

The land submitted by Gading Serpong Housing was allocated for a public cemetery, but until now there is no such facility in the complex," Haryadi Nugraha who led the residents said.

According to Nugraha, the housing developer Mulyadi claimed that he had submitted some money to the regency administration as compensation for the developer's obligation to provide land for public facilities.

Prosecutors office chief Himawan Kaskawa met with the protesting residents and asked them to prepare a written statement of their complaints.--JP