Company denies foul play in apartment project

Company denies foul play in apartment project

JAKARTA (JP): PD Sarana Jaya, a city-owned housing developer,
denied accusations that it had displaced occupants of an
apartment building with force and without compensation.

Spokesman for the company, Brandjangan, also denied that some
of the displaced occupants will be rehoused in the luxurious
Tebet Park condominium.

Brandjangan said the old Rawabilal apartments, which he said
were in "appalling condition", would be rebuilt as an exhibition
center for small-scale industrialists.

"PD Sarana Jaya will build a more solid industrial exhibition
center," Brandjangan told The Jakarta Post yesterday.

He explained that the main reason for the demolition is the
poor condition of the buildings, while the luxurious apartments
under question will be built next to the low-cost exhibition
complex.

Assistant to the city secretary Prawoto Danoemihardjo
confirmed Brandjangan's statement, saying that the city
administration will rebuild the center for small-scale
entrepreneurs but the new condominium is not for the former
tenants of the old center.

"No, it is not for the old tenants because most of them have
been relocated in the Pondok Kelapa apartments in East Jakarta
and they have received proper compensation from the company,"
Prawoto said.

Earlier, a tenant of the half-demolished apartments, Gatut
Sidharto, claimed that PD Sarana Jaya resorted to intimidation to
oust the occupants, many of whom had not received compensation.

"Gatut Sidharto is the only one who refuses to leave the old
building even though the company has paid him Rp 10 million
(US$4.5) in relocation fee, which is higher than anybody else's.
I don't know his real motive (behind his refusal to go),"
Brandjangan said.

Gatut Sidharto told reporters on Monday he demanded the
company guarantee that the former residents of the apartments
have the right to buy and live in the new apartment complex. But
the city administration and the company dismissed the demand.

Brandjangan said that the new low-cost building will be used
only as an exhibition complex and owners would not be allowed to
live there.

"In fact, the old buildings were also earmarked for an
exhibition complex but many people violated the rule and lived
there," he said.

The old low-cost residential/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.

The city administration will build more apartment blocks to
accommodate 580 small-scale businessmen in the city.(yns)