Demolition plan upsets residents
JAKARTA (JP): Twenty representatives of Cengkareng Timur residents in West Jakarta went to the House of Representatives (DPR) yesterday to complain about the government's plan to demolish their houses.
The delegation was received by Alihardi Kiaidemak and Muchsin Bafadal of the United Development Party (PPP) faction of the House.
Bachtiar Ritonga, a spokesman for the delegation, said that the state-owned housing company Perum Perumnas will clear 92 hectares of land occupied by 1,850 families.
"The compensation offered by the company is set based on a Gubernatorial Decree dated April 5, 1988, at Rp 13,850 (US$6.20) per square meter," he said.
The company also agreed to pay Rp 55,000 per square meter compensation for brick and cement buildings, Rp 45,000 for semi- permanent buildings and Rp 30,000 for wooden buildings, Ritonga said.
However, the local residents turned down all offers on the grounds that the compensation was too low.
"How can we buy a new house if the compensation we receive is so limited?" he asked. "This is completely contradictory to the government's effort to fight against poverty through the Presidential Instruction on poor villages," Ritonga was quoted by Antara as saying.
This does not protect the interests of poor people but on the contrary it makes people uneasy, he said.
He further said that local residents demand that Perumnas set reasonable compensation.
Responding to the complaint, Kiaidemak promised to send a letter to Jakarta Governor to ask him to pay more attention to the compensation amounts.
In a related development, the news agency reported that the law and order officers of the West Jakarta mayoralty will soon be deployed to demolish houses in the Cengkareng Timur area because, according to the mayoralty, the houses are illegally built on land owned by Perumnas.
Didin Sutiadi, head of Perumnas' Cengkareng Unit, said that his company is open to local residents for processing their compensation at the district office or at the Perumnas' branch office until Dec. 28.
He explained that 914 out of the 1,040 families, whose legal data was collected by the company in the June-July period, had accepted their compensation funds.
Didin said that Perumnas plans to build 868 units of low- cost houses, consisting of 343 standard houses of 21-square meters and 525 of 36-square meters and 45-square meters in the 1995/96 fiscal year.
"Over 1,190 houses of various types have so far been built on a total of 19-hectares in Cengkareng," he added. (hhr)