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)