The newly established Jakarta Environmental Caucus on Thursday urged the Jakarta administration to issue additional regulations to enforce a bylaw on air pollution control that comes into effect in February.

"We demand that the administration be more serious about preparing supporting regulations for the bylaw, which otherwise will be useless," said the group's coordinator, Muhayar Rustamuddin.

"If the bylaw is implemented consistently, we will be able to clean up air pollution in the city," he said, adding that Jakarta trailed only Mexico City and Bangkok in terms of air pollution.

Muhayar was speaking on the sidelines of a ceremony to mark the establishment of the caucus.

Among the group's founders are former environment minister Sarwono Kusumaatmadja, Clean Air Partnership secretary-general Ahmad Safrudin and Jakarta Residents Forum head Azas Tigor Nainggolan.

Passed last February, Jakarta Bylaw No. 2/2005 bans smoking in public places, requires emissions tests for all vehicles and requires public transportation eventually to run on natural gas.

The city administration has so far issued only onegubernatorial regulation to support the bylaw, a requirement that buildings provide special smoking areas. (bbn)

Source: Jakarta Post