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.