Hundreds of residents rally at land agency

BATAM: Hundreds of residents in Batu Aji district have protested against the National Land Agency (BPN) over the status of the land their houses are built on.

They held a rally at the agency office Tuesday, questioning why they were granted building use permits (HGB) certificates as their land status, instead of ownership certificates.

The agency argued it could not because the land was classified as protected forest.

Rally coordinator M. Situmorang said the agency feared a possible uncertainty for the future because a HGB certificate was valid only for 30 years.

"The BPN could not change the status to provide us with ownership rights. We are worried about this," he said, adding that he had three house in the area.

According to Syahrial Lubis, protester, the land issue arose when a number of house owners who had completed paying their house installments at the bank failed to obtain the certificate they had applied for.

The bank refused to accept the certificates as collateral because the status of the land is said to be protected forest. - JP