Puncak controls to be transparent, says Ginandjar

Puncak controls to be transparent, says Ginandjar

JAKARTA (JP): The head of the National Spatial Planning
Coordinating Board, Ginandjar Kartasasmita, ensured yesterday
that the work to conserve Puncak as Jakarta's water catchment
would be open to public scrutiny.

"...We're a modern country now so rules must be firm and
transparent," said Ginandjar, who is also minister for national
development and chairman of the National Development Planning
Board.

People must also participate and be critical, and ask whether
they are building on prohibited, protected land, he said.

Ginandjar was announcing the early results of the
Bogor-Puncak-Cianjur spatial management team, which was set up
last month to return the area to its function as a water
catchment.

"We hope the work can be completed by the seventh Five year
Development Plan (beginning in 1997)," Ginandjar said.

A 1985 Presidential Decree designates the hilly Puncak area as
a water catchment for Jakarta and its surrounding areas.

Failure to conserve the 120,602-hectare area was blamed for
floods in Jakarta in January and February which claimed 30 lives.

On the subject of pressure by prominent villa owners who
discourage action against violators of land and building rules,
Ginandjar said "many people may be hiding behind influential
names" without the knowledge of the persons.

"Or maybe the owners themselves already understand what we're
doing," Ginandjar said. They may have also been cheated by land
brokers, he said. The team has not confronted such pressure, he
added.

He said the team, consisting of several ministry
representatives, has decided to prioritize parts of six of 18
districts in Bogor and Cianjur as protected areas.

Based on the 1992 law on spatial planning, the area is divided
into protected and cultivated areas.

In Bogor the protected areas are in Mega Mendung, Ciawi and
Cisarua. In Cianjur, they are in Pacet, Sukaresmi and Cugenang.

A member of the team from Ginandjar's office, Sujana Rohyat,
said this means putting permits in order for individually owned
villas, real estates, golf courses and neglected plantations in
the six districts.

There may also be areas in the six districts which may be
cultivated, Ginandjar said.

Each of the government bodies related to land, he said, have
been asked to exercise their authority to conserve the areas.

New permits

"For instance the National Land Agency will no longer issue
new land permits for the six districts," Manuwoto, a team member
from Ginandjar's office said.

Land permits for neglected plantations will be annulled and
handed over to provincial governments, which will manage the
protected areas with the Ministry of Forestry.

The Ministry of Public Works will build dams to prevent the
run off of rain water into areas below Puncak.

Sujana said the team is making an inventory of projects with
permits on land on which building is prohibited, and on land on
which building is permitted.

He said 1993 permits issued by the National Land Agency
covered 29,099 hectares. Of this figure, 26,785 hectares were for
housing.

Ginandjar said there is more hope for the board's success now,
as formerly the board, set up in 1993, did not have a team to
coordinate all the related government offices.

The team, Ginandjar said, consists of representatives of the
Ministry of Forestry, the Ministry of Public Works and the
Ministry of Home Affairs.

Other bodies are the Coordinating Body for Survey and National
Charting Development Board (Bakorsurtanal), the National Land
Agency, the Ministry of Environment and the Ministry of
Agriculture. (anr)