The Palace Calls Warganet's Complaints Easy To Recheck Damaged Road Data

JAKARTA - Deputy for Protocol, Press and Media of the Presidential Secretariat Bey Machmudin explained that netizen complaints submitted through the comments column uploaded by President Joko Widodo could make it easier for the government to re-check damaged road data.

Bey explained that the Ministry of Public Works and Public Housing (PUPR) had collected data and also surveys of damaged roads in all provinces by the National Road Implementation Center/Balai in the regions.

"With public complaints or netizens on President Jokowi's social media accounts, cross-checks can be carried out, between data from the PUPR Ministry and data submitted by netizens so that it will be more targeted," Bey said as quoted by ANTARA, Monday, May 15.

Bey explained that the PUPR Ministry had proposed a budget of IDR 32.7 trillion in 2023/2024 for road repairs throughout Indonesia.

The budget allocation is based on the results of a limited meeting chaired by President Joko Widodo and has been poured into the Presidential Instruction of the Republic of Indonesia (Inpres) Number 3 of 2023 concerning the Acceleration of Increasing Connectivity of Regional Roads.

This Presidential Instruction was signed by the President as an effort to accelerate the improvement of regional road connectivity, provide maximum benefits to the national and regional economy, reduce national logistics costs, integrate between economic centers, and help equalize steady road conditions.

Road repairs, he said, would be gradual. Especially in Lampung Province, road repairs are no later than July 2023 after the auction or tender process.

Meanwhile, President Joko Widodo opened the opportunity for netizens to express their complaints regarding damaged roads through video uploads on his Instagram account @jokowi.

In his statement, the President wrote: "If the road in your area is still badly damaged and has not been repaired for a long time, convey it to me through the comments column and send a video via direct message on this Instagram account."

The video upload when President Jokowi visited one of the damaged roads in Lampung Province was flooded with complaints from netizens about damaged roads in their area of more than 100,000 comments.