Sumbawa Regency says community rice-field proposal will not be affected by Intam mining permit
Sumbawa (ANTARA) – The Sumbawa Regency Government in West Nusa Tenggara (NTB) has assured residents that a proposal for a community rice-field programme will not be disrupted by the mining business permit (IUP) area of PT Intam. The assurance follows a residents’ demonstration over the concession area and delays to a programme to open new rice fields.
Ivan Indrajaya, head of the Regional Secretariat’s Economy and Natural Resources Division, said the local government had followed up residents’ concerns in a coordination meeting chaired by the Sumbawa regent on Tuesday.
“The meeting followed yesterday’s demonstration. The regent chaired it and invited PT Intam, the sub-district heads of Lantung and Ropang, and relevant regional agencies,” he told ANTARA in Sumbawa on Tuesday.
The meeting involved the Public Works and Spatial Planning Agency, the Environmental Agency, the Agriculture Agency and the agency responsible for land affairs. They discussed the IUP issue and plans to develop community rice fields.
Ivan said coordination between agencies was needed to ensure the proposal for the rice-field programme could proceed without being hindered by the mining company’s IUP area.
The meeting also discussed the company’s drilling activities on privately owned land, including compensation for landowners.
Ivan said compensation was provided for drilling on community land. However, the arrangements, amounts and extent of the affected land needed to be clarified to avoid misunderstandings.
He also said the company’s IUP was still at the exploration stage, and it was not yet certain that it would proceed to exploitation.
“This is still an exploration IUP; there is no certainty it will proceed to exploitation,” he said.
Meanwhile, PT Intam External Relations representative M. Ramadhan BS, known as Doni, said the company had offered clarification on concerns in the community, including demands relating to the concession area and the new rice-field programme.
Doni said an IUP did not automatically mean that the company owned or controlled all community land within the licensed area. He also denied that the company prohibited residents from traditional activities such as collecting forest honey and hunting.
Regarding drilling, Doni said the company first sought permission from landowners and provided compensation for each drilling site.
On the new rice-field programme, Doni said implementation had not begun because the central government had reallocated funding to other priority programmes, not because of an issue with the company’s permits.
He said the explanation about the funding reallocation was given at the meeting through the Agriculture Agency. However, details of the budget, the proposed land area and the programme timetable had not been set out.
Clarity over the status of the community rice-field proposal, land use and the stages of mining activity is needed to provide certainty for agricultural development and ensure residents receive full information about plans for the area.
The previous day, dozens of residents and farmers from Ropang, Lantung and Orong Telu sub-districts went to the Sumbawa Regent’s Office to seek certainty about the status of their agricultural, plantation, residential and customary lands within the mining concession.
Residents’ representative M. Taufan said the PT Intam concession covered about 18,000 hectares. Residents proposed that community land and customary land be excluded from the mining concession.