Tangerang govt 'must clear riverbanks'

Multa Fidrus ,  The Jakarta Post ,  Tangerang   |  Fri, 11/14/2008 11:06 AM  |  City

A Tangerang councilor and two NGOs have demanded the regency administration enforce laws prohibiting building along the banks of the Cisadane river, following the unfettered mushrooming of factories, restaurants, residential complexes and a school there.

Councilor Burhanuddin Saleh, who chairs the regency legislature's Commission C on permit issues, said Thursday the violations had occurred because the administration was weak in enforcing regulations.

"The administration must be assertive and not toothless, as it is now," he chided.

A 1993 ministerial regulation and a 1994 bylaw stipulate that riverbanks, earmarked for green spaces and water catchment areas, must be free of buildings. The regulations define riverbanks as areas within 50 meters of a river's edge. Outside of this, buildings may be built.

Sumber Ginting, director of the Public Policy Study Institution (LKP), said several factories had infringed the bylaw but no measures had been taken by officials, despite the LKP's raising of the issue with the administration.

He said the regulations stipulated violators be sentenced to a maximum three months in jail and the building demolished.

Fellow NGO Solidarity for Green Environment (SLH) accused the administration of violating its own bylaw by issuing permits for factories, the school and restaurants along the riverbank.

"Administration officials are paid to enforce the law, but they did just the opposite," said SLH chairwoman Dewi Agustin.

"How can we trust that the law is being enforced here?"

H.M. Hidayat, head of the Tangerang Integrated Permits Service Body (BP2T), admitted many factories and other buildings had been built in violation of regulations, but said he was powerless to take any measures against them.

He blamed the regency coordinating body for capital investment body (BKPMD), public works agency, water resource management body (BPSDA) and tourism agency for issuing the permits to the factories and school, despite his office being in charge of issuing permits.

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