Rp 551 b needed to restore Nabire
JAYAPURA: The town of Nabire, which was devastated by a 6.4 magnitude earthquake on Nov. 26, 2004, needed at least Rp 551 billion to rebuild.
The central government initially allocated Rp 59 billion from emergency funds to rebuild and restore infrastructure, public and government buildings, places of worship and residences.
Some Rp 15 billion has been disbursed directly to Nabire through Regent AP Youw's bank account and Rp 4.9 billion channeled to projects handled by the public works office in Papua.
Under the planned rebuilding program, the town center would be relocated 15 kilometers inland toward the mountainous area of Wanggar district applying quake-proof structures in buildings.
The Papua administration would also procure a seismograph to detect quakes. -- JP
;JP;KDA;INDRA; ANPAa..r.. Focus-Study-Oil JP/5/FOCUS
ITS develops oil study
SURABAYA: The geophysics laboratory at Surabaya's Sepuluh November Technology Institute (ITS) will be turned into an oil and gas study center before making it into a study program in two to three years time.
"The reason for (turning the laboratory) into a study program is because the gas and oil potential in East Java has not been fully exploited," said the institute's rector Mohammad Nuh.
He said that so far East Java has potential oil and gas reserves, like Bojonegoro, Madura and along the northern coastal area. However, a lack of human resources has made it impossible to make maximum use of resources, he added. -- JP
;JP;PUJI SANTOSO; ANPAa..r.. Focus-Riau-students JP/5/FOCUS
No more student dropouts by 2008
PEKANBARU: Head of Riau's education office, Tengku Dahril, promised that if education programs run as expected, there would be no more elementary school students dropping out of school in the province.
In a meeting with the Pekanbaru Provincial Council Commission E on welfare, he said that this year's budget would be mostly used to complete nine-year compulsory education program as well as to eradicate poverty.
"If this program runs as expected, then in 2008, all students can pursue their education to junior high school level," he said. -- JP
;JP;RUSMAN; ANPAa..r.. Focus-Samarinda-graft JP/5/FOCUS
Graft suspects being questioned
SAMARINDA: Two suspects in an alleged graft case involving the East Kalimantan Provincial Council's operational budget worth Rp 85 billion (US$9.4 million) were again being questioned at the local prosecutor's office on Thursday.
The suspects were Soekardi Jarwo Putro, former speaker of East Kalimantan Provincial Council in 1999-2004, and Khairul Fuad, the deputy speaker of the council at the same time. Khairul now still holds the same position on the council.
After the questioning from 9:30 a.m. to 1:30 p.m., Soekardi said the questions were related to financial procedures at the time when he was still in office. He added that the prosecutors just confirmed what had been asked in previous questioning. -- JP