City Govt to Seal Bandung Zoo Next Month
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10 June 2023 00:41 WIB
TEMPO.CO, Jakarta - The Bandung City Government planned to seal Bandung Zoo in July 2023. Head of the Bandung Regional Finance and Assets Agency, Agus Slamet Firdaus, the closing will be carried out in stages according to procedures.
“If it is sealed, public visits will temporarily be barred,” he said on Friday, June 9, 2023.
Agus explained that the tourist site will be sealed off because the zoo management, Margasatwa Tamansari Foundation, did not pay land rent. The city government claims to be the legal owner of the 13.9-hectares zoo land.
The sealing plan will involve the Public Order Agency which will send the first and second warning letters starting next week.
Agus said the foundation had paid land rent from 1970 until 2007. As of April 2023, the amount of arrears from 2008 reaches Rp17.1 billion.
A spokesman for Bandung Zoo, Sulhan Syafii, argued that referring to the Bandung High Court’s ruling, the zoo land is not stated to be belonging to the Bandung City government. “So we are confused as to why they want to seal it,” he said on Friday, June 9, 2023.
Sulhan said his side registered an appeal to the Supreme Court last February and is still waiting for a decision. The sealing, he opined, is not in line with the status quo of the land that all parties must hold while waiting for the permanent legal force or inkracht.
Sulhan mentioned that there are also parties claiming the zoo land beside the Bandung government and the foundation. “According to our attorney, the High Court’s verdict did not mention that the land belongs to the Bandung city government,” he said.
ANWAR SISWADI (CONTRIBUTOR)
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