Like it or not, Tebet victims get apartments
Like it or not, Tebet victims get apartments
JAKARTA (JP): The City Council and the governor's office said
yesterday that the apartment project for Tebet fire victims will
still be built, despite their protests they don't want to live in
an apartment.
"The funds are already available. We hope that we can build it
soon," said Onky Sukasah, chief of the City Housing Office after
a hearing with the City Council yesterday.
Onky was in the company of Zainuddin, deputy to South Jakarta
mayor.
However, the city administration is facing problems even
before ground is broken on the construction site, namely, the
area residents have rejected the proposal and are in the midst of
rebuilding their houses.
The nearly 1,000 fire victims had their 230 premises in a slum
area of West Tebet subdistrict, South Jakarta burned by a three-
hour fire on Wednesday morning.
Despite the pleas of the South Jakarta mayoralty
administration, many rebuilt their premises after the fire and an
increasing number of people are doing so every day.
Meetings were arranged by the South Jakarta mayoralty in the
wake of the fire to brief residents on the city administration's
low-cost apartment plan. However, the meetings did not encourage
them to drop their rebuilding efforts.
Goodwill
Sutarno, chairman of the City Council commission on
administrative affairs, called the city administration to handle
the Tebet issue through persuasive measures, not by force.
"We hope the executive branch give them some directives
properly that they (the fire victims) can understand the city
administration's goodwill," Sutarno told reporters.
Earlier, Sutarno said that area residents were loath to accept
the apartment plan because they had received conflicting
information about it from municipal officials.
Some officials had said that, under the city master plan, the
fire site is slated to be a green zone and, as such, could not
used for housing. They also said that the planned apartment was
to be built elsewhere.
However, other officials said the fire site was slated to be a
"low-coefficient area," that is, land which may be used for
housing providing that 80 percent is left undeveloped.
They said that on those grounds, the municipality could build
an apartment complex there.
To clear up any confusion, the city officials announced at the
yesterday's hearing the fire site was slated for low-coefficient
area.
"Everything is clear now. Apartments may be built there on the
condition 80 percent of the land at minimum is left undeveloped
for parks," said Sutarno.
One year
Onky explained the planned apartments would consist of three
blocks, each with 120 units. Each block will have five stories,
including four stories for residences, with the basement slated
to be a 'marketplace', ".. so residents can continue their
profession in the same place," said Onky.
Around 100 of the fire victims were reportedly traders, who
used to operate in the fire site.
Pending the completion of the apartment, each family of the
fire victims would get funds from the city administration which
they can use to pay rent on their temporary houses.
The so-called "rent fund", whose exact amount had yet to be
decided, could be around Rp 500,000 (US$232) per year, said Onky
and Sutarno.
"The apartment is scheduled to finish in one year. The sooner
the fire victims accept the plan, the better," said Onky. (jsk)