West Sumatra Deputy Governor Encourages Nagari Expansion To Accelerate Development Through Village Fund Disbursement

Pekanbaru-Padang Toll Road in Nagari Kasang, Padang Pariaman Regency, West Sumatra (West Sumatra). (ANTARA-Iggoy el Fitra)

Deputy Governor (Deputy Governor) of West Sumatra (West Sumatra) Audy Joinaldy encourages the expansion of villages or villages. This effort is to accelerate the development process in urban districts in West Sumatra through village funds disbursement.

"That's why it must be encouraged by the expansion of the Nagari. No one should say the reason is that it is compact about the customary land, it is because it does not understand the benefits of the expansion," said Audy in Padang, West Sumatra, Wednesday, May 31.

Audy said that currently, West Sumatra Province has 1,035 villages spread across 19 districts and cities. When compared to Aceh and Jambi, the population of West Sumatra is much more.

However, unfortunately, the amount of village funds that entered Jambi and Aceh was much greater than West Sumatra. Even the difference reached Rp700 billion.

According to him, until now there are still many wali nagari (village head-level) guardians who are wrong in understanding regional expansion. In fact, with this expansion, the central government will more disburse village funds.

With the expansion of the nagari, the customary area will not change, including the traditional nagari (KAN) density which remains a unit.

"What has changed is only administrative. So, actually, there are still very few of our villages being contested," he said.

Simply put, nagari, who initially received village funds of Rp1 billion, after being expanded into two villages, each will receive Rp1 billion.

"So, we must continue to expand the villages in West Sumatra," said Audy.

Meanwhile, the Director General of Village and Rural Development of the Ministry of Villages for Development of Disadvantaged Regions and Transmigration (Kemendes PDTT) Sugito said that from 2015 to 2023 the government had disbursed village funds of up to IDR 468 trillion.

The government disbursed the funds with a focus on two things. The first is to encourage economic growth, and secondly to improve the quality of human resources.

Especially in 2023, the government has set three priorities for the use of village funds, namely national economic recovery, national priority programs, and the third mitigation of natural disasters and non-natural disasters.