Regional autonomy to help curb illegal mining activity: official
Tuesday, January 9 2001 - 04:00 AM WIB
The implementation of the regional autonomy policy which gives regencies and provinces greater power in managing their social and economic affairs would help curb the rampant illegal mining activity in the Central Kalimantan province, a mining official said.
Head of the provincial office of the ministry of mineral resources and energy Nawawi Mahmuda said that the regional autonomy policy would significantly cut the bureaucracy line in obtaining mining areas for the traditional miners or locally called WPR.
Nawawi was quoted as saying by the Kapos daily that one of the reason for the rampant illegal gold mining activity in the Central Kalimantan province was due to the slow development in the WPR, which forces the traditional miners to become illegal miners.
He said that the slow development in the WPR was due to the long bureaucracy. He said that a regency must obtain license to develop a WPR starting from Jakarta.
He said that with the regional autonomy policy, a regency would no longer need to go to Jakarta to obtain a license to develop a WPR.
There are currently around 83 WPR, covering around 25,000 ha of mining area.(*)