The establishment of the fire department would be in line with the Ministry's Regulation No. 16 of 2020 regarding the nomenclature guidelines for provincial and district/municipal fire and rescue departments, MPBK Director at the Ministry Edy Suharmanto said in Jayapura on Wednesday.
“With that in mind, we hope that the Papuan government would consider establishing its own fire department, even though it would be a Type C department. Hopefully, Papua will also make its Regional Disaster Mitigation Agency (BPBD) more independent,” he added.
A fire department, he said, would play a key role and could be used by regional governments to boost their locally-generated income.
"In fact, we can see today that many district and municipal governments have issued regional regulations concerning this matter," he noted.
Highlighting the law that governs the establishment of fire departments, he said that office buildings and hotels must not be granted permission for operation before a fire department inspection is carried out.
Meanwhile, Head of the Papua Public Order Security Agency (Satpol PP) and BPBD Welliam R. Manderi said that the provincial government welcomed the ministry's directive in the hopes of improving the effectiveness of its public services.
"But it should be noted that this is a government policy and it needs a budget. We hope that we had a sufficient budget, especially if we can separate it. Moreover, we have not received assistance from the central government due to uncertain nomenclatures," he added.
To date, he continued, Papua province's fire department is still a dependent section at the province's Satpol PP.
Earlier in Jayapura city on Tuesday (May 23, 2023), the provincial government held a technical coordination meeting between Satpol PP and BPBD of all districts and cities in the province.
The meeting was inaugurated by Papua province’s acting regional secretary, Derek Hegermur, and the Home Affairs Ministry's MPBK director Suharmanto.
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Translator: Qadri Pratiwi, Tegar Nurfitra
Editor: Azis Kurmala
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