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.