Traders oppose to market renovation

Traders oppose to market renovation

JAKARTA (JP): Eight market traders in Muara Karang, North Jakarta, lodged a complaint with the city council yesterday over a plan to renovate their marketplace.

Members of the group, which claimed to represent 253 traders, said they had been ordered to move by the markets authority by end of this month. The temporary market that has been made available for them is not appropriate, they said.

"The condition of the temporary market is poor and it needs to be repaired before we can move there," Napis, spokesman for the traders, told the council's commission B for market affairs.

Napis said that the traders were also afraid that they would not be able to afford the stalls after the renovation had been completed.

"We demand the (markets) authority help us with the rent and guarantee that we will not be evicted from the market," he said.

He added that the markets authority should give the existing traders priority in allocating stalls in the renovated marketplace.

The councilors said that they would discuss the matter with the head of the local markets authority.(yns)