Cooperation needed to help street vendors

JAKARTA (JP): PD Pasar Jaya, the city market management, should cooperate with city-owned Bank DKI to provide loans for vendors in Klender, East Jakarta, to help them buy kiosks from the firm, a city councilor said.

Abdulgani H. Abdullah, the chairman of the City Council's commission B in charge of economic affairs, said on Thursday that the loans could stop the illegal sale of land appropriation permits.

He added that the city administration runs a program to enable street vendors to buy kiosks or hire space in buildings to sell their merchandise.

Abdulgani was responding to reports concerning the fate of vendors who once occupied kiosks in the marketplace inside the state housing complex, Perumnas, in Klender.

Fire

A fire gutted the market on Dec.5, 1993, leaving 1,457 vendors on the street. They were then accommodated at a nearby football field, while PD Pasar Jaya rebuilt the market.

The makeshift kiosks on the football field were destroyed by a fire last February, just as PD Pasar Jaya finished building 1,600 kiosks.

PD Pasar Jaya then offered kiosks to some vendors, who had to buy land appropriation documents first.

They were forced to pay 25 percent of the price of a kiosk in advance, ranging from Rp 1.4 million to Rp 3.6 million per square meter.

But most vendors sold their documents to other people.

Abdulgani said the illegal trading of the documents would worsen the situation. Therefore, he urged PD Pasar Jaya to provide loans for the vendors.(32)