Vendors seek Council support

JAKARTA: At least 20 street vendors who own stalls on Jl. Fachrudin and Jl. Wahid Hasyim in Central Jakarta went on Monday to the city council's commission B overseeing the economy to seek support against a plan by the Central Jakarta municipality to bulldoze their stalls.

"We come here to ask support from councillors to convince Central Jakarta mayor Muhayat to exclude us from the planned eviction as we are all local residents who want to make a living there," said M. Sugiri, the coordinator of the street vendors' association.

Sugiri said there were 820 street vendors who were likely to be affected by the planned eviction.

Commission B secretary Nurmansyah Lubis promised to look for solutions to the vendors' problem.

Central Jakarta municipality plans to vacate the area that has been overcrowded by street vendors in order to ease traffic jams. --JP