Member of the Regional House of Representatives from Indragiri Hilir (Inhil), Muammar Armain, revealed that there are 32 villages that have submitted proposals for expansion since 2018.
However, the expansion process has stalled due to the absence of follow-up from the local government.
“After the issuance of Permendagri No.1 / 2017 concerning Village Arrangement, we (DPRD, red) in 2018 asked the Village Community Empowerment (PMD) Office to carry out the arrangement. There were 32 villages that submitted applications for expansion. But, until now there has been no follow-up,” said Muammar during an interview.
Muammar said that the village expansion proposal should be followed up by the Indragiri Hilir District Community and Village Community Empowerment Office as the leading sector by forming a verification team after submitting the expansion proposal.
The verification team in charge of managing this village should be formed by the Regent.
The Village Community Empowerment (PMD) Office should have ‘picked up the ball’ in terms of drafting a verification team.
“Then, the Regent will approve or issue a decree,” explained Muammar.
Muammar also explained that there would be many benefits for the village after expansion.
First, public services are more efficient because the control range is not too far away.
Second, the efforts to accelerate development due to budget allocations for villages.
“For now, the only consideration is the demographic aspect, namely the population. In the past, demographic and geographic considerations. Now that is no longer considered in the decision making of village expansion,” concluded Muammar while saying that the minimum population required for village expansion is 4,000 people or 800 heads of families (KK) for the Sumatra region as stated in Law Number 6 of 2014 concerning Villages.
