Vento Saudale – Officials from Bogor have since October torn down 75 holiday villas and buildings as part of efforts to eliminate a total of 239 illegal buildings in the Puncak area in a bid to reorganize spatial planning laws and restore the land to its original function, an official said.
Bogor Public Order Agency (Satpol PP) chief Dace Supriadi said that dozens of villas had been demolished in Sukatani and Caringin villages, with the agency planning to take down another 57 buildings in the Megamendung area.
"Last Friday, we sealed off 20 of the 57 buildings and we will finish the rest within the coming week. After that, we will tear them down," he said.
Dace said that the 57 buildings were located on land designated as water catchment areas for the Ciliwung River and therefore prohibited for residential development.
The buildings to be demolished belonged to people and businesses of various backgrounds, including doctors, entrepreneurs and public officials, he said. One such official is Tomex Kurniawan, the former Bogor district police chief who now works as the traffic police chief in Central Kalimantan.
At least 600 officers from the Satpol PP, the Indonesian Military (TNI) and the National Police were involved in the demolitions, which Dace said cost Rp 100 million ($8,413) a day to carry out. The government has allocated Rp 2.1 billion for the demolitions until the end of the year, funded by grants from the Jakarta administration.
The hilly Puncak area has long been a popular weekend destination for Jakarta residents, and for decades locals and outsiders have built homes and holiday rentals in the scenic area, often in direct violation of zoning regulations.
The unfettered spate of forest clearing for residential development has degraded the area's ability to serve as a water catchment for the Ciliwung, resulting in increasingly severe flooding downstream in Jakarta each year.
Rachmat Yasin, the Bogor district chief, said that after the demolitions, the areas would be restored to their original function.
"If it is arable land, we suggest that the area be used as a productive land without any buildings. If it is a water catchment and conservation area, the district government will conduct reforestation," he said.
The Bogor administration has faced pressure from building owners over the demolitions. Yasin said the owners were either unaware of the existing regulations or refused to accept the fact that their homes were illegally built.
"Those buildings have been there for dozens of years, even before I became the head of Bogor district, and [people] have involved other high-ranking officials to put pressure" on the district government to turn a blind eye to the violations, he said.
However, Yasin said officials would continue with clearing the illegal dwellings, regardless of who the owners were. "I don't care who owns the building. If it's proven to be in violation of the law, then I will confront them," he said.
Dace said authorities had tried to notify the owners prior to carrying out the demolitions, but in many cases the owners merely delegated a representative or housekeeper to meet with officers.
"And then when it comes the time to carry out the demolitions, the owners come up with all kinds of excuses, claiming they were never approached to discuss the issue when, instead, our office has sent them three letters of notification before taking action," he said.
He added he hoped that the more influential among the building owners would not try to incite popular resentment against the program.
"In almost every program of this kind, there's always some group that riles up the residents who don't understand the issue," Dace said. "We won't be daunted by this, but we do have to be very careful."