T

he Association of Betawi horse-drawn carriage (delman) operators (PPDB) has refused to cooperate with the Central Jakarta municipality's plan to relocate buggies from the National Monument (Monas) Park to Ragunan Zoo in South Jakarta.

Association secretary Iswadi lamented that the administration had decided on a new location for the buggies without discussing the plan to move them with the buggy operators affected.

"They *the administration* did not involve us *the buggy operators* in the decision-making process. They did not listen to our ideas," Iswadi said as quoted by tempointeraktif.com.

The plan would create new problems since Ragunan Zoo is already home to 26 buggies, he said.

Since the buggy drivers already had to take it in turns to ply their trade amid apparently declining patronage among visitors using their services, moving another 50 buggies to the zoo would cause conflict among the buggy operators, Iswadi said.

Central Jakarta Public Order Subagency head Idris Priyatna said the plan to relocate buggies from the Monas park would become effective as of next week.

"Next week, we will begin barring delman operators from entering the complex," Idris said.

Central Jakarta Tourism Subagency head Dewi Susanti said earlier on Friday that the relocation was carried out because the buggies at Monas had tarnished the image of the city landmark.

"We have to move the buggies to Ragunan because it would be embarrassing for us if the monument, as one of the city landmarks, is littered with horse dung and becomes smelly," Dewi said.

"I think those buggies would be better at Ragunan Zoo than in the city center and Monas, which is surrounded by important state offices," Dewi said.

Dewi said the relocation of buggies was part of the subagency's plan to revamp the complex.

She said the subagency would also limit the hours the monument was open to the public.