Owners of Companies Involved in Forest Fires to Face Sanctions
16 September 2015 08:30 WIB
TEMPO.CO, Jakarta - Any company found guilty of setting fire to land and forest will have not only its permit revoked, but the owner or shareholders will face sanctions, National Police Chief General Badrodin Haiti said.
"Sanctions must be imposed not only on the company but also on its board of directors, the board of commissioners, owner or shareholders," he said at a meeting of smoke emergency operation task force at the Environment and Forestry Ministry Tuesday.
Led by Coordinating Minister for Political, Legal and Security Affairs Luhut Panjaitan, the meeting was attended by National Defense Forces General Gatot Nurmantyo, Environment and Forestry Minister Siti Nurbaya, Chief of the National Disaster Mitigation Board (BNPB) Willem R.
Also present were representatives of the Health Ministry and the Meteorology, Climatology and Geophysics Agency (BMKG), the Riau governor, the South Sumatra governor and officials of the Jambi, South Kalimantan and West Kalimantan provinces.
Ten of the 132 cases of land and forest fires in several parts of the country which are now being investigated involve companies, Haiti noted.
Three of those 10 cases are found in South Sumatra, three in Central Kalimantan, three in West Kalimantan and one in Riau.
The government is serious about handling land and forest fires which have inflicted losses on the community, Panjaitan said earlier.
"We dont play the game with this. We will take stern measures against those found guilty of land and forest fires," he said.
The meeting this time discussed the imposition of sanctions on land and forest arsonists as a follow up to President Joko Widodos visit to South Sumatra to inspect preparations for haze disaster mitigation efforts, the coordinating minister for political, legal and security affairs said.
"Dont hesitate to act on land and forest arsonists," he remarked.
Panjaitan said the tragedy of land and forest fires about which neighboring countries have complained about is related to the self-esteem of the Indonesian nation. Furthermore, the Indonesian government has been accused of being unable to fight the arsonists.
ANTARA
