Govt to revise rule to compensate mudflow victims

A ministerial regulation on land compensation will soon be revised to allow the government to acquire a wider area of the Sidoarjo mudflow in East Java, for road construction.

East Java governor Soekarwo said Friday that the revision of a 2007 Home Ministry regulation on managing village resources, where article 15 stipulates compensation to villagers whose land is acquired for public interest, “would be finished in one week.”

Soekarwo said the revision was necessary so that the acquisition could be executed as wide as the regency level.

The present regulation only allowed the acquisition to cover the village, while the Sidoarjo mudflow covers about 90-hectares comprising many villages.  

“The regulation has hindered the Porong-Gempol road construction,” Soekarwo said.
 
He expected that the land acquisition could be completed immediately so the construction of infrastructure projects to connect Porong and Gempol could begin March or April.

“We will build a 10.1-kilometer main road connecting Porong and Gempol,” the governor said.
The government will also build pipes for gas, electricity and water.

The construction is estimated to finish in March 2011, he added.