Residents hold out for higher canal compensation
Residents hold out for higher canal compensation
Bambang Nurbianto, Jakarta
Residents whose land will be affected by the East Flood Canal
project are insisting the city administration meet their
compensation demands, despite being given a six-month deadline to
accept the price being offered by the city.
If the deadline passes with no resolution to the stalemate,
the administration has said that it will ask the president to
revoke the residents' land ownership rights.
Kotip, a 54-year-old resident of Cipinang Besar Selatan
subdistrict, East Jakarta, said over the weekend the land owners
had proposed compensation of Rp 2 million (US$225) per square
meter. That figure is much higher than the taxable value of
property in the area, which is about Rp 500,000 per square meter.
"We are open to negotiations, though," said the civil servant
who owns a 250-square-meter plot of land, adding though that
residents would not accept less than Rp 1 million per square
meter.
Kotip said most residents opposed a decree issued by Governor
Sutiyoso in late April, which states that the central government
has the right to seize the land if residents reject a
"reasonable" compensation offer.
He also said residents had been informed of a plan to
construct a flood canal in the area as long ago as the 1980s, but
no action was ever taken. So when talk of the flood canal
resurfaced several years ago, residents did not take it
seriously.
The administration has acquired just 50.8 hectares of land, or
16 percent of the 316 hectares required for the planned Rp 4.124-
trillion canal. It has allocated Rp 150 billion in the 2004 city
budget to acquire more land for the project.
The 23.5-kilometer-long canal, which will stretch from
Cipinang in East Jakarta to Marunda in North Jakarta when
completed, is expected to help ease flooding in the eastern part
of the city.
Projected to be 100 meters wide and five meters deep, the
canal will link the Cipinang, Sunter, Jati Kramat, Buaran and
Cakung rivers.
Aminah, who owns a 100-square-meter plot of land in Cipinang
Besar Selatan subdistrict, demanded the administration increase
its compensation offer so she could afford to buy a new house
nearby.
"Some officials from the administration measured my land and
even counted the trees, but they did not make an offer," she
said.
A subdistrict official, Thamrin, said some residents remained
unconvinced that the administration was serious about purchasing
their land.
The Rp 150 billion allocated in the 2004 city budget will be
used by the East Jakarta municipality to acquire 183.3 hectares
of land in 11 subdistricts.
The municipality administrative division head, Lukman Hakim,
said officials hoped to finish the land acquisition process by
the end of this year.
"So far, we have only listed some plots of lands in the
Cipinang Besar Selatan and Pondok Bambu subdistricts," he said.