Apartment dwellers demand compensation
Apartment dwellers demand compensation
JAKARTA (JP): Former occupants of the low-cost Rawabilal
residential and business apartments in Tebet, South Jakarta,
demanded that city-owned developer PD Sarana Jaya compensate them
for the homes the company illegally demolished.
The company displaced the residents and has begun tearing down
the apartment buildings, despite the lack of a the court ruling
on the company's appeal against an earlier ruling favoring the
occupants.
Gatut Sidharto, the only resident still living at the
location, told reporters yesterday that the company has not yet
offered any compensation.
"The company has lost in court but until now the management
has never shown any intention to pay us," Gatut said, adding that
most of the residents had moved out because of intimidation by
people apparently hired by the company.
Sarana Jaya officials were not available for comment.
The Central Jakarta Court ordered the company to either pay
each family Rp 60 million (US$27,272) in compensation or relocate
them.
The low-cost resident/business apartment complex, consisting
of four blocks of 48-square-meter apartments housing 64 families,
was built in 1982 under the Presidential aid program on six
hectares of land owned by the city administration.
The city council has stipulated that the plot is to be turned
into a modest industrial center where small-scale businessmen
will establish factories with living quarters, Gatut added.
The city administration will build more apartment blocks to
accommodate 580 small-scale businessmen, but up to now only 64
families have registered.
"Apparently, PD Sarana Jaya has another plan. In 1988 it
claimed that the buildings were in bad shape and too dangerous
for people to live in and therefore they needed renovating. Then
they began persuading people to move out," Gatut said.
He said that the motive behind the eviction was PD Sarana
Jaya's plan to build the luxurious Tebet Park apartments in
cooperation with PT Kreasibumi Properindo.
On the contrary, he added, the buildings were in a sound state
and only needed minor renovations due to the buildings becoming
unkept when the residents abandoned them.
Gatut said the former occupants are willing to forget the
compensation if the company issues a written guarantee stating
that the old inhabitants will have a chance to live in the new
business complex.
"We want a written guarantee that we have the right to buy,
live and to continue business in the new apartments," he said,
adding that these were conditions that they were offered when
they first moved to the apartments in 1982.
Gatut said the displacements have damaged the tenants'
businesses, including his own. He used to run a garment factory
on his premises and had secured an order worth Rp 600 million.
But he lost the order due to the problems with Sarana Jaya.
"No banks or exporters trust me anymore because of this
condition and most of the tenants are in the same boat," he said.
(yns)