City likely to up budget to Rp 17t for next year
Damar Harsanto, The Jakarta Post, Jakarta
The Jakarta administration is likely to propose Rp 17 trillion for next year's budget, or an 18 percent increase from the current 2005 budget of Rp 14.3 trillion.
The administration has prioritized several projects, like the development of the busway's new corridors and the East Flood Canal in the new budget, while paying greater attention to the welfare of teachers, civil servants and the incentives for heads of neighborhood units and community units as well.
"We will continue to finalize some priority projects, like the busway and East Flood Canal next year," Deputy Governor Fauzi Bowo said at City Hall after a closed-door presentation by City Planning Agency head Achmad Hariadi.
Fauzi said his administration proposed the allocation of Rp 800 billion to develop four more busway corridors in addition to the existing route and two routes that are slated to become operational by the end of this year.
This year, the administration has earmarked about Rp 500 billion to complete the two corridors connecting Pulogadung in East Jakarta to Harmoni in Central Jakarta and from Harmoni to Kalideres in West Jakarta. The first busway stretching from Blok M in South Jakarta to Kota in West Jakarta that has been operational since January last year cost about Rp 240 billion.
For the East Flood Canal project, which is meant to mitigate flooding in the eastern part of the city, the administration will provide Rp 400 billion, or the same as this year's allocation, mainly for land acquisition.
The canal project that is estimated to cost Rp 5 trillion has been bogged down amid strong opposition by land owners to the project. The land owners are demanding higher compensation than the administration can afford.
Aside from those priority projects, the administration will double the fund for the poor to Rp 200 billion next year from Rp 100 billion this year.
According to Fauzi, the preparation of the draft 2006 city budget by City Planning Agency (Bapeda) is expected to be completed within two weeks so that it could submit it to the City Council for deliberation.
Fauzi also said that his administration planned to raise the living allowance for teachers and civil servants to Rp 2 million from the current Rp 1 million and Rp 1.7 million from Rp 750,000 currently respectively in addition to the basic salary.
"As part of efforts to uphold security in the smallest community unit here, we will also increase incentives given to heads of neighborhood units and community units so that they will be more motivated to secure their respective communities," he said.
The administration has been facing serious problems to effectively involve those heads in its war against terrorism. In the past five years, Jakarta has seen a string of bomb attacks, for which police believe terrorists use rented houses as a hideout to prepare the attacks.
The bomb attack on the Australian Embassy in Kuningan in South Jakarta in September last year claimed nine lives and injured hundreds of others.
Jakarta Police have called on the public to stay vigilant in case of another bomb attack despite the death of terrorist Azahari bin Husin in Batu, Malang in East Java last week, saying that some terror suspects were still at large.