Number of Tangerang vagrants jumps to 1,200

TANGERANG (JP): The number of registered vagrants, who mostly earn a living by begging at major traffic lights in Tangerang Mayoralty, jumped from only 521 before the economic crisis hit the country in July last year to 1,200 at present, an official said.

"The rapid expansion in the number of vagrants causes us difficulties in controlling and removing of them," Hapid Effendi, head of Tangerang social service office, said on Friday.

Hapid was quoted by Antara as saying that the vagrants had gathered not only in temporary accommodation places, but also on major traffic intersections and shopping centers.

He said that the latest data showed the number of vagrants continued rising even after the Jakarta administration launched a major operation against them over the last few weeks.

He expressed concern over the absence of joint cooperation and agreement to the rehabilitation of the vagrants into Greater Jakarta (Jabotabek), which consisted of Jakarta and its surrounding cities: Tangerang, Bekasi and Bogor.

The existing Jabotabek Development Coordination Agency deals only with physical development and has nothing to do with social problems, said Hapid, who was accompanied by Tangerang Mayoralty's spokesman Harry Mulya Zein.

He cited as an example the vagrants who just wandered in the city's forests in Batuceper district, loitered downtown areas and slept along the shops' verandahs. "This causes a bad eyesore in the city," he said.

Hapid, therefore, underlined the importance of introducing an integrated system in Grater Jakarta to simultaneously raid vagrants without them fleeing to other areas every time an operation in one part of Greater Jakarta is launched.

He also explained that his office was faced with difficulties in compiling detailed facts, including where they came from, from the vagrants as they did not have any identification cards.

Besides being faced with these difficulties, the mayoralty was further burdened by the limited amount of funds set aside from the city budget to take care of them as compared to the various problems the service office had to face.

"This year alone, for example, the funds for handling the vagrant problem only amounted to Rp 25 million (US$3,333)," he said.

Besides disturbing the beauty of the city, they frequently vandalized city parks by damaging flower pots, he said. (hhr)