Residents oppose planned cemetery
Residents oppose planned cemetery
BOGOR (JP): Residents of Palasari village at Cijeruk district
here rejected on Friday the Sri Asih Pratama foundation's plan to
build a luxury cemetery on a 32-hectare plot of land which used
to belong to them.
The residents questioned the plan as they were not consulted.
Ade and Wahyudi, two of the local residents, acknowledged that
the land was cleared by the foundation in 1992, but it never told
them what its objectives were.
"The foundation promised to build a new one-kilometer street
in the village, but the promise never materialized," the two
residents said.
Without informing the residents, the foundation provided an
expensive burial for a former business tycoon from Jambi on
Thursday. The burial reportedly cost about Rp 2.5 billion, and
the deceased was transported there by helicopter. The burial was
tightly guarded by military personnel in case of any anticipated
resistance from the locals.
Ahmadi, another local resident, said that the family of the
deceased had reportedly bought a 5,000-square-meter plot of land
in the area from the foundation at Rp 500,000 per square meter.
He reiterated that the residents strongly opposed the
foundation's intention to build a cemetery there. "The foundation
should have talked to us before launching the development of the
cemetery," he said.
Palasari village head Atay Suharta said he knew nothing about
the foundation's plan. "I will report this to the district head
as I'm afraid the local residents will be angry if I don't do
it," he said.
He said that the foundation said it had secured recommendation
No. 593/616 dated on Feb. 24, 1994, and it was signed by former
West Java governor HM Sampurna.
But the recommendation was already out of date, Atay said, and
the foundation should not enforce the plan.
Meanwhile, Jenner Simanjuntak, a spokesman of Bogor regency,
said that the recommendation alone was inadequate.
It also needed a land use permit from the regency in line with
the existing city spatial plan, he said.
The foundation could not be reached for comment as its address
was unknown. (21/hhr)