Bandung City Government Continues to Accelerate Land Certification for Places of Worship

The Bandung City Government (Pemkot) continues to accelerate land certification for places of worship through the Gesit program or Movement for land certification for places of worship.

"We continue to encourage this land certification program. Hopefully this certification program can provide residents with comfort in worship," said the Mayor of Bandung, Yana Mulyana.

Meanwhile, the Head of the People's Welfare Section (Kesra) of the Bandung City Regional Secretariat, Momon Ahmad Imron Sutisna said, the land certification program for places of worship is one of the promises of the Mayor of Bandung as stated in the RPJMD.

The program aims to provide legal certainty over land for places of worship that have been used for worship by the community.

Since this program was launched in 2021, the Bandung City Government has succeeded in certifying 198 places of worship.

"This 2022 target is planned, we will certify as many as 200 certificates of places of worship. The rest we are targeting to be completed in 2023," he said when met by Public Relations Bandung, Wednesday, July 20, 2022.

"The final target for this program is 500 certificates," he added.

Please note, in the city of Bandung there are 2,996 places of worship. Consisting of 312 Protestant churches, 11 Catholic parishes, 4 Hindu temples, 34 Buddhist monasteries, 1 Confucian temple, and 2,634 mosques.

Of the 2,634 mosques that have been registered, as many as 1,749 mosques or 66 percent of them have been certified or certified as waqf.

"The rest that have not been certified, we facilitate through the Gesit program as many as 500 certificates," he said.

"We are committed to simplifying and accelerating the certification of places of worship," he continued.

Momon admitted that he continues to disseminate information to the regions and educate the administrators of places of worship about the importance of legal legality.

Furthermore, said Momon, managers of places of worship who wish to take part in the Gesit program can submit applications through the local KUA office, the Bandung City Ministry of Religion Office, and the Bandung City Welfare Section.

"Later on, we will select the incoming file for completeness, if it is not complete, a note will be given and returned to the party who submitted it. If it is complete, the document will be submitted to BPN to issue the certificate," he said.

This movement is a collaboration between the Bandung City Government, the Ministry of Religion of the City of Bandung and the BPN of the City of Bandung.

The Gesit program was enthusiastically welcomed by the managers of places of worship. One of them is Kristiawan, Chairman of DKM Al Amin, Jalan Sisari Wetan, Lengkong District, Bandung City.

Kristiawan thanked the Bandung City Government and BPN who assisted in assisting the filing until the issuance of the certificate.

"It's definitely very helpful. Because everything from RT, RW, kelurahan and so on," said Kristiawan during the handover of the certificate by the Mayor of Bandung, Yana Mulyana, early last July.

He was also grateful that the mosque, which has a capacity of 300 people, had a certificate issued. That, he felt gave a clear calm.

"It's kind of like if you are worried (if there is no certificate) if there is a donation, how can there be no certificate. With this (certificate) of our mosque together, Sodakoh is more confident that it can be handed over to people who need it, always the beneficiaries," he explained.

He revealed that the issuance process was quite short and fast, it took about 2 months for the certificate to be issued.

"Alhamdulillah, the collection of files, measurements and others went well, it took about 2 months to complete," he said.

In line with Kristiawan, the administrator of the Al Huda Mosque DKM Rancasari District, Teten Sutendi said he was very grateful for the issuance of the Al Huda mosque certificate through the Gesit program.

"Hopefully it can bring blessings and grace to the city of Bandung. We pray that you can lead the city of Bandung to become a religious city," he said during the handover of land certificates by the mayor, mid-April. (rob)**

Head of the Bandung City Communication and Information Technology

Yayan A. Brilyana