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Long-awaited land acquisition law passed

Project in progress: Several workers pass by the construction site on the west side of the Jakarta Outer Ring Road (JORR W2) toll road, which will connect Ulujami and Kebon Jeruk

The Jakarta Post
Jakarta
Sat, December 17, 2011

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Long-awaited land acquisition law passed

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span class="inline inline-left">Project in progress: Several workers pass by the construction site on the west side of the Jakarta Outer Ring Road (JORR W2) toll road, which will connect Ulujami and Kebon Jeruk. The Land Acquisition Law passed by the House of Representatives (DPR) on Friday is expected to speed up the development of public infrastructure facilities in the country. The JORR W2 is being constructed to reduce congestion and is expected to support the growing economy as the road will ease traffic of trucks and other delivery vehicles. JP/NurhayatiThe House of Representatives endorsed the long-awaited land acquisition law for public development in Jakarta on Friday.

The new law is expected to solve conflicts that have, in the past, often resulted in delays of public infrastructure projects.

Daryatmo Mardianto, an Indonesian Democratic Party of Struggle (PDI-P) legislator who led the House’s special committee deliberating the bill, said that the law was badly needed to help cope with infrastructure problems in the country.

“Infrastructure projects are the key drivers to boost the Indonesian economy. This law sets the time frame of every acquisition process without ignoring the rights of the public,” Daryatmo said.

By having the law, all legal proceedings pertinent to land acquisition for a government-commissioned infrastructure project should be completed within 436 working days at the most.

The law also allowed a more democratic process for providing a 60 day public consultation period before acquiring land.

If the public disagreed with providing the land, they could appeal to the state administrative court (PTUN), which would then issue a ruling in no more than 30 days. Should the public remain dissatisfied with the ruling, they will be given a 14 day period to appeal to the Supreme Court, which should issue a ruling within 30 days.

However, if the public agree with all the terms and conditions after the public consultation period, all business and legal procedures for the land acquisition should be complete within 260 days.

After that, the National Land Agency (BPN) would step in and assign an independent appraisal team, consisting of independent financial experts with expertise in agrarian issues certified by the BPN, to determine the value of compensation due to be paid to the public.

The valuation process must be completed in 30 days and it could be paid in the form of money, re-settlement, land ownership, or stock ownership in the government project.

Landowners who disagree with the compensation settlement or the proposed land price can file a legal complaint and seek court rulings up to the Supreme Court.

The head of the BPN, Joyo Winoto, said that the implementation regulation of the law was expected to finish within a year.

“However, we are expecting that the presidential decree for this law will be finished within six months,” Joyo told The Jakarta Post.

Regarding compensation, he said that the public could have more than one form of settlement. “If the public wants money and re-settlement for compensation, we will give that,” he added.

In a separate interview, Fatchur Rochman, the chairman of Indonesian Toll Road Association (ATI) said that he was very content with the passing of bill, saying that delay of infrastructure projects had caused severe headaches for businesspeople.

However, he warned that the implementation regulations should be issued by the end of 2012 at the latest, unless the execution of land acquisitions would still take a long time. “Some presidential decrees are issued three to four years after the passing. We do not want such things to happen because the land acquisition law will then be useless,” he told the Post.

The Agrarian Renewal Consortium (KPA) said the land acquisition law only accommodated the interests of the government and not necessarily the people. “We will ask the Constitutional Court to review the law,” KPA campaign deputy Iwan Nurdin told the Post. (nfo)

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