Regent ready to face lawsuit

TANGERANG (JP): Tangerang Regent Agus Djunara has said that his administration is ready to face any lawsuits from people claiming not to have received compensation when their land was seized to build the Serpong-Bintaro toll road.

"We have enough evidence which could prove that we are innocent. Our legal officers have prepared to face any such lawsuits," Agus said on Thursday.

He said that based on data of the land appropriation committee, the land that the above-mentioned people claimed had been bought from a resident named Aryanto who had the land certificate.

He said the ownership was disputed because a third party was involved in the appropriation process.

"It's common that a third party interferes when we have a dispute," he said.

A group of protesters blocked a toll gate in the Ciputat area, claiming to be heirs of a late Kampung Sawah man named Kampret, who was the rightful owner of the land and that they had not been compensated yet.

Setting up a tent on the site, they blocked the toll gate with big logs.

But they stopped the blockade and struck the tent on Wednesday after meeting with the director general of highways at the Ministry of Public Works, Tjuk Sudarsono, who suggested taking the case to the court.

Tjuk told the protesters that the lawsuit should be directed against the regent-led land appropriation committee.

He said the ministry gave Rp 80 billion (US$10 million) to the committee to pay compensation for seizing 76 hectares of land for the project.

But Agus denied that his administration was responsible for the compensation, saying that it only mediated among related parties.

"Probably he (Tjuk) did not know the full story," he said.

But he admitted that the administration could act as a cashier to make sure that the compensation reached the rightful people.

The heirs of Kampret said that they had yet to receive compensation for 3,670 square meters of land taken for the project.

They were asking for Rp 275,000 per square meter for the land. (jun)