Number of Tangerang vagrants jumps to 1,200
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)