Demolition Of Villa Houses Continuing

Bogor, West Java, Dec 2 (Antara) - The Bogor district administration is set to demolish more than 200 units of villa house and other illegal building in the Puncak mountain resort. Head of the Bogor civil service police (Satpol PP) unit Dace Supriyadi said he is optimistic demolition of the luxurious buildings would be wrapped up by the end of this year. Rapid growth of the number of buildings in the mountain has been partly blamed for frequent flooding in the downstream areas including Jakarta. There are less ground to absorb water in rainy seasons in upstream area resulting in Jakarta anguishing under heavy flooding every year, an official said. "So far 75 units of villa houses owned by 32 individuals have been demolished in Puncak," Dace told Antara news agency here on Monday. Work to pull down the buildings began in October in the village of Sukagalih, in the sub-district of Megamendung all villa houses, he said. In November , the Satpol PP demolished 21 illegal buildings in the village of Sukatani, Tugu Utara, in the sub-district of Cisarua. "In one day on Wednesday (Nov 20) Satpol PP, backed up by police and military succeeded in pulling down 21 buildings using heavy equipment," , Dace said . Most of the buildings are owned by rich people or officials from Jakarta. The work is not always easy for Satpol PP on a number of factors such as rain and difficulty to bring in heavy equipment to high locations on the brink of valleys. "In addition, some of the buildings are strongly built as tall as three floors," Dace said. On Friday last week Satpol PP sealed 50 more units of villa house owned by 25 individuals, he said . "This Monday we sealed buildings in Cikopo, in Megamendung to be demolished on Tuesday," he said. He said Satpol PP had received order to pull down buildings in Puncak belonging to 239 individuals . The buildings have been built illegally over water conservation land owned by the state . The Bogor district administration has received a grant of Rp2.1 billion to cover the cost of the demolition work . The grant was provided by the Jakarta city administration, which is the party most interested in having the building cleared in the Puncak areas.