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)