Vendor object to moving out

JAKARTA (JP): More than 300 vendors in Kebon Jati market, Tanah Abang, Central Jakarta, complained to the city council on Wednesday about the plan of the city-owned market agency PD Pasar Jaya to temporarily move them to outside the Tanah Abang railway station.

The vendors have to move out soon as PD Pasar Jaya has erected some pillars to extend the market by constructing a four-level building at the location where the vendors, who mostly sell groceries and meat, have established their business.

The vendors told City Council Commission B for Economic Affairs that PD Pasar Jaya announced on July 26 that they have to temporarily move to the new site on Aug. 10.

"PD Pasar Jaya should have announced it two or three months earlier," Syarifudin, the secretary of the union of the Kebon Jati market vendors, told reporters after meeting the councillors.

"PD Pasar Jaya is not fair and does not treat us with respect although we always pay our fees regularly," he added.

He said that PD Pasar Jaya charged each of the vendors Rp 30,000 per month in addition of the Rp 1,500 daily fees for security, sanitation and other services.

The vendors complained that the temporary location proposed by the market management was not strategic and that the kiosks there were too small.

Syarifudin also said that there had been efforts to move them to another place, still in the Tanah Abang area, at least five times since 1971.

He admitted that the vendors built their own kiosks by themselves in 1986 next to the Kebon Jati market building. However, later PD Pasar Jaya took over the management of their kiosks as part of the market.

Hamidi AR, a councillor from United Development Party who met the vendors, said that PD Pasar Jaya had never discussed the development of the market with the councillors.

"Instead of paying attention to vendors with big capital, the agency should give priority to the small-scale vendors as well," he remarked.

Hamidi called upon the agency not to take any action against the vendors and pledged to arrange a meeting between the agency and the vendors.

The construction of the pillars is part of the expansion of Kebon Jati market in Tanah Abang, planned by the city administration to reorganize the market.

The first stage of the market development includes the renovation of Kebon Jati market and the construction of a pedestrian bridge across Jl. K.S. Tubun.

The city administration reportedly has allocated about Rp 1 trillion (US$108 million) for the renovation of the market, which is expected to be completed in 2003.(04)