balinews Bali Governor I Made Mangku Pastika warned district heads on Tuesday against issuing building permits for hotels in sacred areas. The call comes a day after the provincial administration issued a moratorium on new hotel developments in the island’s three main tourist areas of Denpasar, Badung and Gianyar in a bid to encourage tourism development in the island’s west and north. Pastika said many district officials were still flouting the 2009 ban on building in areas considered sacred to Balinese Hindus. “They know the punishment for both developers and officials violating the bylaw is harsh, yet they continue to issue these permits,” he said. He cited Badung district, where 25 hotels, holiday villas, restaurants and boutiques had been built in the Uluwatu area around the Pura Luhur Uluwatu cliff-top temple. All the buildings lie inside the five-kilometer exclusion zone around the temple, an area defined as sacred under the bylaw. The governor said he had officially notified Badung district head Anak Agung Gde Agung about the matter, which could eventually see all 25 establishments demolished. He also criticized Agung for allowing the hotels and restaurants to be built in the first place and said apart from the zoning violation, “some of the establishments have all their papers in order, while others don’t at all.” Pastika stressed that while Badung was the most prominent example of this zoning violation, other districts were also guilty. For his part, Agung said he would respond to the governor within the week, but he declined to say what he would discuss. Meanwhile, Made Sumer, Badung’s council speaker, said Pastika was being “very tendentious” in making his point. He said that in addition to Pura Luhur Uluwatu, one of the six holiest temples on the island, Uluwatu was also home to two other temples. “So why does the exclusion radius have to center on Pura Luhur Uluwatu?” he asked. Sumer called on the governor not to interfere in the running of the district. He said the Badung administration and council would handle zoning issues as they saw fit. The councilor also criticized the suggestion that the 25 establishments in Uluwatu would be demolished, saying it was unclear who would be responsible for compensating the owners. Among the hotels threatened with demolition are the upscale Bulgari Hotel and Resort and the Suluban Cliff Villa, both perched on the cliff-top Bali Governor Blasts Officials For Building in Sacred Areas | The Jakarta Globe
gilbert de jong without taking the government in the picture....there's Made Mangku and there's Agung Gede Agung, guess who holds more 'power' within the Bali Hindu Community...
