Road belonging to locals sold

TANGERANG (JP): A three-kilometer village road in Kelapa Indah subdistrict has been illegally sold off by the Tangerang city administration to property firm PT Modernland Realty Co. for Rp 1.3 billion (US$146,000), an activist of an NGO said on Saturday.

The chairman of the Tangerang Government Watch (TGW), Tony Wismantoro, said Rp 400 million, or one-third of the fund, went into the pockets of six local officials.

"Those six men are all Tangerang administration officials. Some are former officials and the rest are current (officials)," he said.

"The remaining Rp 900 million went to the Tangerang city treasury office. TGW is still collecting relevant evidence on the matter. The evidence will be handed over to the related authorities very soon," Tony said,

The road is four meters wide.

The authentic owners of the land, the locals, had repeatedly asked about their rights in regards to the illegal sale of their property but later asked for the help of TGW to probe up the case, he said.

The road was developed as part of the Modernland housing complex, which includes a golf course. Several projects in the complex have been seemingly abandoned.

When asked to comment, Tangerang deputy assistant of administration affairs, Achmad Kosasih, denied TGW's allegation, saying that, as much as he could remember, the selling of the road together with other village roads in Tangerang and Cipondoh in 1992 was in line with prevailing regulations.

"Money collected from the sale of those roads was used to buy land in Sepatan and Rajeg districts. The transaction has been legalized in a West Java gubernatorial decree," Achmad said.

When reporters persisted on knowing the size of the purchased land and the precise area, Achmad answered that he was still looking for the documents.

According to Kelapa Indah residents, there is no evidence of the land transaction of their properties recorded at the subdistrict office. (41/ylt)