D

espite strong resistance from East Jakarta'€™s Ciliwung riverbank residents, the city administration has maintained its plan to relocate them.

Residents in Kampung Pulo, Jatinegara, East Jakarta, are set to be relocated to the nearby Jatinegara Barat low-cost apartments to make way for improvement works on the Ciliwung River, which often overflows during the rainy season.

Housing and Building Agency representative Ika Lestari Aji said that her agency had collected data on all the families residing in Kampung Pulo last week, which is usually among the worst hit areas during flooding.

In total, as many as 518 families would be relocated to the Jatinegara Barat low-cost apartments. Ika claimed that the agency also held discussions with the residents last week.

'€œAlthough there are a few disagreements, in general, the residents have been cooperative and are willing to be relocated. The relocation will begin some time this week,'€ Ika said at City Hall on Tuesday.

In contrast to her statement, kompas.com reported that hundreds of residents from Kampung Pulo held a peaceful protest against the plan near their residence on Wednesday, demanding compensation before the city conducted any eviction.

They marched on Jl. Jatinegara Barat, holding banners proclaiming '€œWe are not squatters! If you want to evict us, you must pay!'€ and '€œKampung Pulo existed before Indonesia'€™s independence! Do not belittle us!'€

One of the protesters, a local leader named Sumbadi, said that he and his family would refuse to be relocated if the city administration did not compensate them with a fair amount for their land and building. He said that thus far, there had been no discussions on compensation.

'€œIf they want to destroy my home, I want them to pay me compensation. I have lived on this land since I was born. I built this home with my money. I pay property tax for this house every year. I am not a squatter,'€ said Sumbadi.

Separately, Governor Basuki '€œAhok'€ Tjahaja Purnama confirmed that there would be no compensation for the residents because they occupied state land.

He claimed that 90 percent of the families had agreed to be relocated.

'€œWe will not pay compensation because they are living illegally on the land. Moreover, most of the residents have already agreed to the relocation,'€ he said.

Improvement works on the Ciliwung River have been planned for a long time, but only recently has real progress been made. The current plan is to widen the river from 10 meters to between 30 and 50 m with additional inspection roads.