Councilors concerned about Sunter land case

Councilors concerned about Sunter land case

JAKARTA (JP): The City Council urged the city administration yesterday to pay compensation to 344 families whose land in Sunter, North Jakarta, will be appropriated for the construction of a new reservoir.

Chairman of the Council's Commission A in charge of government affairs, M. Aman, said that prompt payment is critical to help them move to other areas before land prices escalate further.

"Because the residents need the money to buy land in other areas, it will be better if the city administration pays all the compensation this year," Aman said.

However, since the dam is being financed with funds from city and state budgets, the compensation will most likely arrive in stages.

"We can understand that the city administration faces procedural problems but all the residents want is to move to other areas as soon as possible," Aman said.

The 344 families are among the 829 families that occupy about 13.5 hectares of state land in Sunter. So far, 485 have already left the area after receiving their compensation, which was set in 1993 at Rp 160,000 (US$72.7) per square meter of land and Rp 60,000 for swampland.

Aman said that the central government has earmarked about Rp 25 billion to appropriate the land.

Out of the Rp 25 billion, Aman said, Rp 8.5 billion was disbursed by the central government in the 1993/1994 and 1994/1995 fiscal years, and another Rp 3.5 billion came from the city administration, he said.

In this current 1995/1996 year, the city administration has allocated an additional Rp 5 billion to compensate the remaining residents, Aman said.

The amount, however, is only enough to pay about 249 families. Payment for the remaining 95 families will be conducted next year, he said.

The reservoir is one of two in Sunter. The reservoir projects are designed to help control the annual floods in 38 of the city's most vulnerable areas. (yns)