KPC agrees to pay compensation to protesting villagers
Thursday, May 10 2001 - 04:30 AM WIB
The East Kalimantan coal mining giant PT Kaltim Prima Coal (KPC) has agreed to pay compensation to the people of Kabojaya village in Sangatta, East Kutai district, who had accused the company of polluting their farming land.
KPC external relations manager Khairul was quoted by the local Kaltim Post daily as saying that the company would pay Rp 780 million (US$1=Rp 11,000) in cash and another half in the form of project.
"Based on our negotiation, the company will pay Rp 780 million in cash while the remaining half possibly in the form of project," he said.
The negotiation with the protesting villagers was facilitated by the East Kutai administration.
The villagers had accused KPC of polluting their farming land, causing it be no longer productive for farming activity, which has been their main source of living. The villagers demanded around Rp 1.6 billion in compensation.
But Khairul said that without having to affect the compensation promise, it had yet to be proven whether KPC had really polluted the local farming land.
He said that the company expected the role of the Bapedalda environmental agency to investigate.
He added that the disputed farming land had actually allocated by the local administration as non-productive land.(*)