"They seem to be careless over our warning."Jakarta (ANTARA News) - The Environment Ministry is to sue eight companies in East Java for polluting the environment, a spokesman said.
Environment Minister Gusti Muhammad Hatta said here on Wednesday the eight companies had been on the government`s blacklist for some time for repeated violations of environmental regulations.
"They seem to be careless over our warning," said the minister adding that, according to the government`s procedure, companies which had been blacklisted twice must be put on trial for firm sanction.
However, Gusti did not mention the name of the eight companies. He only said that one of them was a fish canning company.
Gusti also said there were other companies in several areas in Indonesia which are in the government`s blacklist. However, he said he would wait for the companies to improve their system since they had only been in the blacklist once.
In general, Gusti said, the awareness of national companies to maintain the environment had been increasing progressively over the years. The condition could be seen from the decreasing number of companies blacklisted by the government.
The minister also expressed hope to increase the number of companies being assessed by the government for its environmental-friendly system. "Last year we have 680 companies. Hopefully in 2011 we can increase the number to be 920," he said.
(Uu.A051/HAJM/F001)
Editor: Priyambodo RH
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