Squatters to receive compensation

JAKARTA (JP): The mayoralty has agreed to pay compensation, ranging from Rp 300,000 to Rp 500,000, to squatters evicted from the riverbank in Pejambon, Central Jakarta.

Mayor Abdul Kahfi said yesterday that the compensation would be paid soon after the families accept the amount offered.

He said the amount of compensation would not be raised. "The squatters have to accept the amount of money or they get nothing," he added.

The policy is a setback for the mayoralty, which initially stated it would not give any money to the squatters. The mayoralty said that the families, squatting on state-owned land, actually had no right to compensation.

The squatters, whose homes were torn down by the city administration on Oct. 19, had earlier demanded Rp 5 million compensation for each family.

The mayoralty said the pulling down of the structures was in line with the administration's clean river program.

The city administration earlier offered the squatters three choices: return to their hometowns, move to low-cost apartments in Karet Tengsin or join the transmigration program.

Some squatters said they wanted to be resettled in Lampung.

Kahfi said the administration is waiting to learn of the possibility of relocating the squatters to Lampung. Lampung, in southern Sumatra, transmigrates its own residents and has been closed to transmigrants from other provinces.

Kahfi also said that there would be no subsidies for the squatters who choose to live in apartments.

"Under the regulation, the authority only subsidizes residents who move to an apartment due to an accident," he said. (32)