Residents urge village head to quit

TANGERANG (JP): About 70 residents of Sawah Lama village in Ciputat district here went to the Tangerang regency inspectorate office, demanding that their village head, Rusdi Ali, resign his position.

They claimed that the village head, who had served for two periods, had deviated from his original position. "Besides personally appointing heads of both neighborhood units and neighborhood communities without any consultation with local residents, he also once sold a plot of land belonging to a local resident," Sobur, one of the protesters, said.

The land sold by the village head covered 370 square meters and was worth about Rp 37 million (US$4,000), he said.

The protesters also questioned a donation from the central government amounting to Rp 6 million as there had been no signs of progress since the donation was received.

"We asked the regency inspector to take action as soon as possible. We will come here in bigger numbers if our complaint is not heeded," one of the protesters who asked not to be named said.

Sudirman, the inspector, urged the protesters to be patient. "Handling such a case will take time," he said. (41/hhr)