0 Council wants details on RPJMD

The Jakarta Legislative Council has accepted the 2013-2017 mid-term regional development plan (RPJMD) proposed by Jakarta Governor Joko “Jokowi” Widodo, with many question marks and additional notes. The National Mandate Party (PAN)-National Awakening Party (PKB) faction highlighted the details of the administration’s flood prevention programs during a review session on the RPJMD at the council on Thursday. “The key to handling floods is not decided with how much money we spend or how many programs we have, but what the method is,” faction spokesman Hidayat AR Yasin said. 

He said the administration also needed to evaluate the giant sea wall project — that would start in 2014, six years earlier than the previous plan — more comprehensively “because it requires trillions of rupiah [billions of US dollars]”. The Jakarta administration has been mulling over the adoption of a Jakarta Coastal Defense Strategy, which includes the giant sea wall. Discussions with the Netherlands over the master plan were initiated during Fauzi Bowo’s term. Democratic Party spokesman Ditian Corisa said the administration should prioritize the drainage system revitalization program. 

“Building water reservoirs and deep tunnels, and dredging rivers were only glanced at,” she said. The Golkar Party faction said it suggested the administration could widen the Ciliwung River to around 50 to 100 meters and dredge the river to five meters deep. The council’s budget committee deputy chairman Triwisaksana said it was more important now for the council to agree with the RPJMD, rather than bickering. “If we eventually have to build deep tunnels, we can revise the spatial planning bylaw,” he said. Transportation-related projects also received many additional notes. 

Jokowi has so far proposed several different transportation modes, like monorail, the mass rapid transit (MRT) and the bus rapid transit (BRT), and an odd-even policy to overcome transportation woes. The PAN-PKB faction questioned the details of transportation system revitalization programs. “The administration needs to prepare its design strategy, and its implementation needs to be measurable,” Hidayat said, adding the administration also needed to realize a macro-transportation system. 

The Democratic faction suggested that the administration prioritize the rail-based transportation systems, like monorail and MRT. Jokowi said recently that work on much-awaited monorail and mass rapid transit (MRT) system projects would begin as soon as the end of the month, “once all legal matters are completed”. The council also discussed a number of welfare programs, like the Jakarta Health Card (KJS) and Jakarta Smart Card (KJP) programs.

Triwisaksana said after the meeting that some factions urged the administration to recalculate budget allocations for both programs because the number of applicants was increasing. “We need more details on how to implement the KJP program, so it won’t be misused,” he said. (cor)

source : the jakarta post