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)