Cheap rice allotted to ID-less poor in Jakarta

JAKARTA (JP): The city administration will for the first time offer government-subsidized rice to 1,600 families who lack required Jakarta identification cards, an official said on Monday.

Djodjo Sutardjo of the city's regional economic bureau said priority for this month's offer would be given to the poor living along riverbanks, railway tracks and under bridges in the nine subdistricts. The schedule is still pending.

"It's a test case operation because there are actually about 97,000 who are living below the poverty line and have no ID cards in those nine subdistricts," Djodjo said.

During the program, each of the families would be allowed to purchase between five kilograms and 10 kilograms of the rice at Rp 1,000 per kilogram.

Rice sells for an average Rp 3,500 per kilogram in the marketplace.

"It'll be strictly a cash-and-carry basis," Djodjo said.

All payments for the cheap rice, he added, would be made to the Indonesian Humanitarian Committee (KKI) and Food For the Poor (PARAM), two non-governmental organizations which agreed to voluntarily participate in this program.

"They will be held responsible for the money. The city administration and heads of the subdistricts will have nothing to do with it," Djodjo said.

The rice will be on offer to needy families in Papanggo and Tanjung Priok subdistricts in North Jakarta; Bukit Duri and Manggarai in South Jakarta; Jembatan Besi and Angke in West Jakarta; Kampung Melayu and Bidara Cina in East Jakarta; and residents of shacks along railway tracks in Central Jakarta.

Earlier, city population agency head Sjahrin Lumban Toruan said about 1.7 million people in the capital did not possess ID cards.

"About 1.5 million hold KIPEM (seasonal ID cards) and the other 200,000 do not have any ID cards," Sjahrin said.

The cheap rice scheme has been conducted by the local authorities since last July based on gubernatorial instruction No. 273/1998.

Aimed at helping poor Jakartans cope with the economic crisis, the scheme first focused on holding ID cards.

Previous activities required respective subdistrict heads to collect transaction payments.

But they have yet to pay a total of Rp 2.2 billion of the Rp 4.1 billion collected from the scheme, Djodjo said.

The matter is still a serious headache for the city administration.

Djodjo said there were no conclusive reasons from subdistrict heads on their failure to pay.

"But the administration is strictly looking into the matter," he assured. (ylt)