Status of cemetery plot questioned

JAKARTA (JP): A city councilor urged the administration on Friday to clarify the status of a 44-hectare plot of land originally designated to be part of Pondok Ranggon Cemetery in East Jakarta.

Agus Waluyo of Commission E for social welfare affairs said the city's footdragging in determining the land's status had put the 600 owners of the land in a state of limbo: They did not know whether to sell their property or build houses on the sites.

"If the city administration wants to expand Pondok Ranggon Cemetery, please explain it to the local people soon.

"Even if the administration doesn't have adequate funds to finance the land's clearance, it could pay the land owners in installments," Agus told reporters.

The 44-hectare site was originally designated as part of a 98.7-hectare area in Pondon Ranggon to be developed into a public cemetery as stipulated in Gubernatorial Decree No. 68/1977.

The other 54.7 hectares have been cleared with 12.6 hectares already the home to 21,183 graves, he said.

Pondok Ranggon Cemetery currently inters eight to ten bodies a day, including unidentified corpses from hospitals, Agus added. (ivy)