Ministry builds more homes for soldiers

Paper Edition | Page: 4

Looking good: (From left to right) Defense Minister Purnomo Yusgiantoro, director of state insurance company for military member PT Asabri Adam Damiri, Public Housing Minister Djan Faridz and chairman of the Association of Housing Developers for Soldiers, Veterans and Civil Servants Kartolo, check on a model of a house for soldiers.(JP/Theresia Sufa)

The Defense Ministry is constructing more homes for soldiers and employees of the ministry to overcome overcrowding the government-funded housing complex.

Defense Minister Purnomo Yusgiantoro said that many soldiers and employees who lived on a meagre salary had to stay at military boarding houses even after they retired.

“It is because they can’t afford to buy houses,” he said at the groundbreaking ceremony for Bumi Kartika housing complex for soldiers in Dramaga, Bogor, West Java on Thursday.

The new housing complex, to be constructed on 50 acres, will help reduce overcrowding in government-sponsored housing.

Over 400,000 soldiers and 60,000 civil servants are on the Defense Ministry’s payroll. The ministry only provides 192,823 houses, consisting of 158,705 units for active soldiers and civilian staffers, 27,460 units for retirees and 6,658 units for widows of soldiers.

In total, the ministry lacks 241,929 houses.

The ministry has signed an agreement with the Public Housing Ministry to build low-cost apartment blocks for soldiers.