Tanjung Jabung Timur Regional Development Planning Board chairman Mustafa Kamal said here on Tuesday his office had drawn up a strategic plan for the development of Berhala island after the inter-prvincial dispute over it had been settled.
"After the legal status of Berhala island has been established in Jambi province`s favor, we will take initial steps to establish a definitive village on the island as an extension or expansion of the region," Mustafa Kamal said.
According to him, the ten-kilometer-wide island was previously inhabited by around 20 families from Sungai Itik and Nipah Panjang villages.
But Mustafa admitted that so far the Jambi provincial government, especially Tanjung Jabung Timur district, had yet to receive any official letter affirming the island`s legal status.
The island has for years been at the center of a dispute between the provinces of Riau Islands, and Jambi.
But former Jambi Governor Zulkifli Nurdin said here on Monday that the island had officially become part of Jambi province as it was affirmed in a Home Affairs Minister`s decree signed last week.
"I have just met with Home Affairs Minister Gamawan Fauzi who said that the decree on the status of Berhala island was sighed a few days ago," Zulkifli said.
According to the former Jambi governor, because he himself had always been a persistent advocate of Jambi province`s rights to Berhala Island, the home affairs minister had personally told him the good news that the island had officially become part of Jambi province.
Zulkifli said the struggle of Jambi province to regain Berhala island was appreciated by the Home Affairs Ministry by handing back the island to the province. ***3***
(O001/B/HAJM/18:43/a014)
(T.SYS/A/O001/A/A014) 11-10-2011 18:49:19
Editor: Priyambodo RH
Copyright © ANTARA 2011
