Transmigration Minister Orders Verification of Alleged Land Overlap in Lahat
Jakarta (ANTARA) - Transmigration Minister (Mentrans) Muhammad Iftitah Sulaiman Suryanagara has ordered a verification of suspected overlap between transmigration land and oil palm plantation business-use rights (HGU) in Lahat Regency, South Sumatra.
“We will study this case in Lahat thoroughly. I will immediately write to and coordinate directly with the ATR/BPN to trace the land’s status,” Iftitah said in an official statement received in Jakarta on Friday.
The investigation concerns land in Mekar Jaya village, Kikim Barat district, after the Ministry of Transmigration received aspirations and documents from the Indonesian Activist Action Network (JAKSI).
Iftitah said the case is one of several public reports handled by the ministry as part of efforts to resolve land issues in transmigration areas.
He said the government is currently settling issues affecting more than 80,000 transmigrants who have yet to obtain certificates for around 129,000 land parcels.
He said the Ministry of Transmigration will match the public’s documents with government data and archives, including management rights (HPL) data for transmigration areas.
Meanwhile, data on business-use rights (HGU), including the authority to issue or revoke them, lies with the Ministry of Agrarian Affairs and Spatial Planning (ATR)/National Land Agency (BPN).
“We will first confirm whether the location is indeed a transmigration area with a valid HPL. If irregularities are found, we will certainly follow up in accordance with applicable regulations,” Iftitah said.
Director General of Transmigration Area Development at the Ministry of Transmigration Sigit Mustofa said the transmigration programme in Mekar Jaya village was implemented between 1982 and 1984, settling 250 heads of families.
According to ministry data, the programme was carried out under the Home Affairs Minister’s HPL Decree Number 129/HPL/DA/1984 covering 5,953.10 hectares of land.
Sigit said the transmigrants’ normative rights in the form of homestead land, Business Land I and Business Land II had been allocated in accordance with regulations. Freehold certificates for land belonging to the transmigrants have also been issued.
However, he said field validation results showed indications that part of Business Land II falls within an area suspected to be included in the HGU of an oil palm plantation company.
He said this situation still requires further examination before the government can determine the land’s status and steps towards resolution.
The Ministry of Transmigration will also review the field validation results and the dispute settlement discussions conducted in 2020.
“All that data will be cross-checked with ATR/BPN data and documents held by the public to accurately determine the boundaries of the transmigration area and the HGU,” Sigit said.
JAKSI representative Dodo Arman said the transmigration programme in Mekar Jaya village has been running since the early 1980s. However, conflict at that time caused some transmigrants to leave the site.
Based on the public’s documents, the group suspects that some of the transmigrants’ business land now falls within the HGU area of an oil palm plantation company.
JAKSI has asked the government to trace the land administration process and restore the public’s rights if the examination finds irregularities.
As a follow-up, Minister Iftitah ordered his staff to conduct field verification, match HPL data with ATR/BPN records, and examine the public’s documents.
He also asked JAKSI to help bring forward residents who feel aggrieved so that the identification process can be carried out thoroughly.
“If there are indeed people whose rights have not been fulfilled or who have been harmed, the state must ensure the matter is resolved based on facts and applicable law,” Iftitah said.