Papanggo people seek higher compensation
Papanggo people seek higher compensation
JAKARTA (JP): Riverbank residents in the Papanggo subdistrict in North Jakarta filed a complaint with the city council yesterday over the small amount of compensation the mayoralty offered them for their houses which are scheduled to be demolished.
Eight residents, claiming to represent 15 others, complained that the mayoralty is only willing to pay a compensation rate of Rp 100,000 (US$43.47) per square meter to every family living in the subdistrict.
The spokesman for the residents, Munajib, told the council's commission A, for government affairs, that the sum is too small.
"We cannot accept the compensation because we paid more than that for the house," Munajib said, adding that the residents are demanding a compensation set at Rp 200,000 per square meter.
He said most of the residents paid Rp 750,000 for a plot in the area in 1984. Most plots are about 45 square meters.
Nur, a housewife, said the mayoralty had already demolished seven meters of her house and it plans to complete the job this week.
"It's not fair as we can't go anywhere with the sum of the compensation set by the mayoralty," she said.
The residents live along the Tiram river. The mayoralty plans to pull down the houses claiming they were built illegally.
"We don't know if our houses were constructed illegally because we secured permits from the head of the Papanggo subdistrict to build in the area," Munajib said.
Chairman of the commission M. Amman said that the residents have made two mistakes: building the houses without a building development permit and building them in a forbidden area.
However, he said he would contact the North Jakarta mayoralty to clarify the matter and settle the problem.
"At least I will ask them not to demolish the houses without giving the residents a chance to save their belongings," he said.
The commission also received a complaint from buyers of houses at Taman Surya, a luxurious housing complex in Cengkareng, West Jakarta, over the developer's failure to issue certificates for their houses.
Certificates
The spokesman for the consumers, Yongki C. Andyka, told members of the commission that they are afraid that the developer, PT Satwika Permai Indah, a subsidiary of the Putra Surya Perkasa (PSP) group, will not issue the certificates.
"There's one buyer who bought the house with cash in 1994 and he has still not yet received his certificate. We are tired of the developer's unkept promises," Yongki said.
He added the price of the houses range from Rp 160 million to Rp 200 million.
Yongki said the residents have decided to seek justice through the legal process but he urged the commission to give them a helping hand by making sure that in future developers will be unable to act in such a way.
Meanwhile, Robert Puang Sunur, a senior executive of the PSP group, said yesterday that owners of only seven houses in Taman Surya II have not yet received the certificates.
"Out of the owners of the 350 houses in the complex, only seven have yet to receive certificate. They were delayed by the National Land Agency," Robert told The Jakarta Post, yesterday.
He said that the agency does not have enough personnel to process all of the certificates at once because there are so many real estates in Jakarta.
However, Robert promised that all of the certificates will be completed as soon as possible. "We will issue certificates for the owners of the seven houses this week." (yns)