Vendors object to ITC plan
SUBANG, West Java: Around 300 vendors in Pamanukan, Subang regency, have protested the regental administration's plan to build an International Trade Center (ITC) in the shopping district, starting later this month.
The vendors objected to the plan because they must be relocated to a temporary compound about three kilometers west of the shopping center.
"If the regental administration still goes on with its plan, it means they don't care about us," Kusdiyati, an official of the Pamanukan vendors association, said on Tuesday.
She said that the vendors had been protesting for several days, peaking on Saturday when they blockaded the busy north coast route for two hours.
Meanwhile, Pamanukan district chief Budi Setiadi said the ITC should be built quickly because the existing shopping center could no longer accommodate the vendors, whose numbers had continued to increase.
Budi claimed that although the administration had invited the vendors several times to discuss the matter, the vendors had always turned down without any reason. -- JP
;JP;AgusM;Ajra;Nana ANPAa..r.. Across-civil-servant-number Civil servant number imbalance JP/5/ACROSS
Civil servant number imbalance
MAKASSAR, South Sulawesi: State Minister for Administrative Reforms Feisal Tamin said on Tuesday that the number of civil servants between the western and eastern parts of Indonesia were unbalanced.
"There are only 555,648 civil servants in the eastern part of Indonesia, but there are over 2.4 million on Java alone," he said.
Feisal said that provinces in the eastern part of Indonesia had only demanded infrastructure development, and had never asked for an increase in the number of civil servants.
He pointed out that civil servants had always lacked professionalism, which had disappointed the public in the end because of the poor service they provided. He also emphasized on the need to simplify the bureaucracy for civil servants. -- JP
;JP;AgusM;Ajra;Nana ANPAa..r.. Across-funds-school-renovation Lack of funds halts school renovation JP/5/ACROSS
Lack of funds halts school renovation
CILACAP, Central Java: A limited budget has put a halt to a renovation project for 800 elementary school buildings in the regency. Head of the regental education agency Sutoyo said that there were 1,132 elementary schools and that 70 percent of them were damaged.
"The buildings are already old and they need renovation. But the budget we have only comes to 10 percent of the needed funds," he said on Monday, adding that the renovation was estimated to cost Rp 100 billion (US$12.2 million).
The agency has started to combine several schools into a single institute in order to overcome the lack of funds, as well as to anticipate a drop in students for the upcoming academic year.
Sutoyo said that there were 82 combined schools so far, which cost the agency Rp 3 billion. The process is expected to be completed next year. -- JP