Residents let down by oil release

JAKARTA: Poor residents in Serdang subdistrict in Kemayoran, Central Jakarta, missed out on the distribution of stockpiled cooking oil Wednesday, with many saying they had not received the coupons needed to buy the oil.

According to news portal Tempointeraktif, local resident Isah said the coupons were not fairly distributed and that ""poor people didn't even get the coupons.""

The distribution on Wednesday -- known in government parlance as a ""market operation"" -- was held by a cooking oil producer which provided 6,000 liters of the oil. Residents paid only Rp 6,500 (less than US$1) per liter, far cheaper that the soaring market price of Rp 9,000.

Subdistrict head Anwar Maolana said coupons were distributed several days before the market operation. He said the head of the neighborhood unit was tasked with distributing the coupons mainly to local poor families. --JP