Members Of The Riau Islands DPRD Examined By The Police For 1 Hour Related To Land On Pulau Rempang Batam

Riau Islands DPRD member Taba Iskandar showed a letter of return of land to the state after an examination at the Riau Islands Police, Wednesday (13/9/2023). (ANTARA/Yude)

KEPRI - Member of the Riau Islands DPRD (Kepri) Taba Iskandar fulfilled the summons of the Riau Police investigators regarding land ownership on Rempang Island, Batam City. "So I was invited to investigate the status of the land in Rempang. I gave information from 10 to 11 hours. I was asked about the cultivation of land, and I also said that I had a small garden there," said Taba after an examination at the Riau Islands Regional Police in Batam City, Riau Islands, Wednesday, September 13, which was confiscated by Antara. The examination, he said, was because the land he owned entered the production forest which could be converted into the Batam Concession Agency (HPK), so it needed a re-data collection. The land, he continued, was obtained from the former village head (kades) who had debts to him. To pay it off, the former village head paid it with land. "The land I had, I told the chronology, I didn't buy it. So there was a former village head there, he owed me, he continued to pay with land," he said.

He explained that during 20 years the land was not used because the land status when all the letters were given came from the village head. "That's why he was not too sure in general. Only in 2021, he was assisted by his friend to be given durian seeds and planted, only a year of his durian life," said the former chairman of the Batam City DPRD for the period 1999 to 2004. He said that during the examination he was asked to hand over the land by signing the agreement letter. He is willing to hand over the land to the state. "So in my statement there, I return it to the state," he said.

For this reason, he asked officers to be more cooperative and fair in responding to the land problem on the island of Rempang. He hopes that officers must be able to sort out which land is cultivated by people who are not residents of Rempang, and which ones are being worked on by local residents. "I don't mind. What do I mean, this must be localized by the Rempang problem. The outsiders who work on the land there, don't combine the problem with the local residents," said Taba.