Fire victims allotted funds to rent houses

JAKARTA (JP): City-owned developer PT Sarana Jaya will give rent money to victims of a fire which gutted 1,297 houses in Pademangan Barat, North Jakarta, an official said yesterday.

North Jakarta Mayor H. Suprawito said the funds would be enough to rent a house for one year while residents wait for cheap apartments to be constructed on the fire-ravaged site.

Suprawito declined to give further details, saying some problems still needed to be straightened out.

PT Sarana Jaya plans to build four blocks of cheap apartments on the site.

"There are many options for settling this matter," he said at City Hall. "We are open to any suggestions, especially from the victims."

Suprawito said the fire victims would be given priority to buy the new apartments based on their legal papers, certificates and identification cards.

"According to the latest data, there are 1,171 families living in the gutted area."

He urged the fire victims to lodge applications with legal officials as soon as construction is completed.

"Don't get into trouble by applying through brokers or third parties."

Suprawito was scheduled to hold an open meeting with the homeless residents in North Jakarta district last night.

"The city will consider any suggestions and the aspirations of victims," he said.

Suprawito reminded residents, who plan to rebuild their homes, that they must follow the guidelines.

"If they want to build new houses, it has to be done in line with the existing rules. They can't build them indiscriminately, without paying attention to the surroundings. I simply urge them not to go ahead with the rebuilding plans."

He declined to say whether the city already had plans to use the site for commercial buildings as well as cheap apartments.

"Let's not assume anything," he said. "The bottom line is that every suggestion will be taken seriously and we are interested in people's views."

The 5,914 people displaced by the fire are still facing a shortage of clean water and decent shelters. They have also expressed concern over a city plan to evict them from the area.

Based on Gubernatorial Decree No. 932/1997, the Pademangan Barat area is included in the city's rejuvenation plan.

The announcement of plans to replace the gutted houses with apartments did not allay people's fears due to previous bad experiences. Other fire victims have been faced with a higher price for new apartments than originally promised and the provision of compensation is not always a simple process. (07)