Toll road pickets urged to end action, go to court instead

TANGERANG (JP): A senior official of the Tangerang Regency Office believes that protesters blocking a toll gate in a dispute over unpaid land compensation would be better served by taking their grievance to court.

"Instead of blocking the toll gate and setting up tents and (claiming) to have not yet been paid by the developer for their land, it's better for them to bring the case to court immediately," the regent's assistant for administration affairs, Obun Burhanuddin, told the media on Saturday.

Protesters have blocked the toll gate in the Ciputat area, claiming heirs of a deceased Kampung Sawah man are rightful owners of the land and were not compensated.

Legal recourse is the only way to determine who is the responsible party for the payment, said Burhanuddin, who is also in charge of land provision for public use in the area.

"In this case, the responsible party to pay compensation to the rightful land owners for the construction of this toll road is PT Bintaro Serpong Damai, a consortium of PT Bintaro Jaya Realty and PT Bumi Serpong Damai."

PT Bintaro Serpong Damai director Ignesjz Kemalawarta said, however, that the consortium had nothing to do with the land appropriation for the toll road.

He maintained it was handled by a "committee of nine", led by the regent.

Ignesjz agreed the most effective resort for the people was to file suit, which would provide an immediate decision in the dispute.

The consortium has spent about Rp 200 billion for the Bintaro- Serpong toll road project, Ignesz said, and it had a 25-year right to operate the toll road.

On Saturday, dozens of people remained camped out at the toll gate, vowing they would not leave until they received appropriate compensation for 3,670 square meters of land utilized for the project.

The protesters claim the land is owned by the heirs of the late Kampret, who had four children.

"We'll defend this land until the heirs receive their required compensation of Rp 275,000 per square meter," Daud, a lawyer of the heirs, said Saturday.

He insisted his clients possessed legal land documents and had never sold it to any party.

"If PT Bintaro Serpong Damai claims to have paid money for the land, we need to know to whom they gave the money.

So far, my clients never received a cent in compensation for their land."

The demonstrators, who started their protest on Thursday, piled wooden poles and set up tents on one side of the toll gate of the road, which was scheduled to be opened on Saturday by Minister of Public Works Rachmadi B. Sumadhijo. It was canceled.

Due to their presence, the state-owned toll road operator, PT Jasa Marga, is only operating the other lane from Ciputat to Tangerang in a trial of the 7.1-kilometer road which began on Friday.

Motorists will not have to pay the toll during the trial, according to the head of Jasa Marga's Jakarta-Tangerang branch office, Bambang Harto.

He did not disclose the duration of the trial, but said that his company was awaiting President B.J. Habibie's decision on Jasa Marga's proposal for a toll of between Rp 2,000 and Rp 2,500.

"So far, we haven't received a decree (of approval) from the President," Bambang said.

He was unsure whether the government would hold off on giving approval due to the protest. (41/bsr)