Residents ask for transparent process in Canal payments
Residents ask for transparent process in Canal payments
Damar Harsanto, The Jakarta Post, Jakarta
Owners of land and properties affected by the East Flood Canal
project in East Jakarta have demanded that the municipal
administration be more transparent in paying compensation.
The residents complained that they could not obtain details of
property prices made by the East Jakarta land and property
acquisition committee.
"We should know how much we will get from the compensation for
our buildings," chairman of the residents' forum, Ibrahim Tri
Asworo, told The Jakarta Post on Saturday.
In a newly signed decree, East Jakarta Mayor Koesnan Abdul
Halim has ordered that property owners may obtain the estimated
compensation for building premises, fences, wells, yards,
gardens, bridges and other facilities.
According to Ibrahim, the detailed information had so far only
been made available at the East Jakarta Municipal Office making
it difficult for residents to access.
Another resident, who asked to remain anonymous, complained
about the slow process for compensation.
"Apparently, those who are involved in the compensation
process have not prepared well all the documents so that they
find it difficult when they have to process our documents. We
have to wait for more than five hours for them to verify our
documents," complained the resident of Pondok Kopi.
Head of Malaka Sari subdistrict -- one of the subdistricts
affected by the Canal project -- Wawa Kartiwa, acknowledged the
slow compensation process.
He said that the process had to be done carefully to ensure
that all documents were valid.
At least 25 residents of Malaka Sari, who own a total of 5,427
square meters, are slated to receive the compensation at the
municipal administration office starting this week.
An official in charge of the compensation process, Edi
Sudrajat, said that the residents of Malaka Sari, who only have
receipts for land transaction indicating that they have purchased
the land from the previous owners, rather than land title
certificates, would only receive Rp 1,032,000 per square meter,
or 90 percent of the registered taxable value of the property
(NJOP) of Rp 1,147,000.
Mayor Koesnan Abdul Halim said earlier last week that his
administration plans to complete the land acquisition for the
Canal project by 2007, citing the instruction from Governor
Sutiyoso.
As of Sept. 14, the municipality has cleared 139,891 square
meters of land and paid a total of Rp 181.9 billion in
compensation to residents at the six subdistricts in the
municipality.
The administration has allocated a total of Rp 375 billion
this year to acquire land for the Canal project, which is
expected to solve flooding in the eastern part of the capital.
Aside from acquiring land in East Jakarta, the administration
has also earmarked another Rp 90 billion to acquire land in North
Jakarta affected by the project.