East Jakarta street vendors say kiosk lottery unfair
JAKARTA (JP): Nine street vendors filed a complaint with the city council yesterday, saying they were subject to an unfair kiosk lottery in East Jakarta.
The vendors from Cililitan filed the complaint with the council's commission B for economic affairs and blamed the municipality for their predicament.
The spokesman, Irman, said traders from outside the area had been given the rights to the kiosks promised to them.
Setting up kiosks for small scale vendors is one of the municipality's programs to reduce illegal operations on the streets.
"We have been doing our business there since 1977 and we have permits from the city," Irman, the spokesman of the vendors said.
"But none of us got a kiosk there," he said.
The traders, who claimed to represent 29 others, said that a city official did not include their names in the lottery.
They were excluded as the official did not consider them legitimate traders, Irman said, as their permits had expired.
Reason
"The official just made up the reason," Irman said.
He explained the city held the lottery in July in which 230 kiosks in Cililitan were to be distributed.
However only eight vendors at the location got kiosks.
Irman said each trader had to pay Rp 400,000 for each kiosk.
"All we ask is a chance to open our businesses again because we are not allowed to do so. We ask you to help us," he said.
The commission told the traders it would summon the related agencies to settle the matter.
Kiosks for street traders are set up as temporary shelters pending the construction of proper market sites.
There are a total of 200,000 street vendors throughout the city, and only 100,000 have been moved from the streets.
The administration has established eight new marketplaces costing Rp 3.9 billion.
The marketplaces for former vendors are in Jl. Nusa in East Jakarta, Meruya Ilir and Kalideres in West Jakarta, Tipar Cakung and Lorong in North Jakarta, Rawa Sawah and Palmerah in Central Jakarta and Jl. H. Cokong in South Jakarta. (yns)