Ex-minister questions roadworks Prodita Sabarini, The Jakarta Post, Jakarta Former state minister for the environment Sonny Keraf urged police Tuesday to halt an innercity road-widening project, pending an investigation into allegations it violates environment laws. Giving his statement to police as a member of the Jakarta Caucus for the Environment, which is reporting the case, Keraf said the roadwork and the removal of trees from Jl. Sudirman and Jl. Thamrin would contribute to the deteriorating condition of the city's environment. "The project should be stopped," he told the Jakarta Police's special crimes division. Detectives from the division's resource and environment unit took statements Tuesday from Keraf and Surachman Ponco, a member of green group Friends of the Earth, which is grouped under the caucus. The caucus filed in October a case against Governor Sutiyoso, arguing that his roadwork policy violated both the 1997 Environment Law and the 1999 bylaw on city spatial planning. Jakarta Police spokesman Sr. Comr. I Ketut Untung Yoga Ana said police were still gathering information on the case. "Currently, we're summoning witnesses and experts on the environment to determine whether the project is harmful or not," he said. Keraf said that, according to investigators, police would set up police lines if they found from questioning witnesses a strong reason to do so. Earlier in the month, police took the statement of Azas Tigor Nainggolan, the caucus' founder and chairman of the Jakarta Residents Forum. In an effort to reduce traffic congestion in the capital and reverse predictions of gridlock by 2014, the city administration has allocated Rp 30 billion (about US$3.15 million) for the removal of hundreds of trees along Jl. Sudirman and Jl. Thamrin, and the opening of extra lanes there. Some 33 banyan trees along Jl. Thamrin are in the process of being moved to Ragunan, South Jakarta, in the first stage of the project. Keraf said the project had yet to undergo an environmental impact analysis as required by the environment laws. Keraf said the administration was violating its own bylaw on city spatial planning, which states that the function of open green areas cannot be changed.
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