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Pramuka Market drugstores 'not illegal’: Pasar Jaya
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A medicine and medical equipment vendor awaits customers on June 27 at East Jakarta's Pramuka Market. (Antara/Sigid Kurniawan)
T
he president director of Jakarta-owned market operator PD Pasar Jaya, Arief Nasrudin, said the agency could not define as illegal the drugstores currently operating at East Jakarta's Pramuka Market.
He said the drugstores were owned individually by the community and were apotek rakyat.
“As long as we have not received an official letter from the Jakarta administration, the drugstores cannot be defined as illegal,” he said in Jakarta, as quoted by kompas.com on Saturday. He confirmed that PD Pasar Jaya was still allowing such apotek rakyat to continue operating at Pramuka Market.
Arief added that the market operator had ordered the market's vendors to maintain security in the area to prevented the drugstores from selling hard drugs and expired medicines.
However, the government has actually revoked apotek rakyat businesses through Health Ministry Regulation No. 53/2016.
The secretary-general of the Pramuka Market drug sellers' association, Yoyon, had admitted previously that according to current regulations, the drugstores were illegal.
“But what can we do? We have to keep the drugstores open to support our families,” he said on Thursday.
Pramuka Market was closed from Sept. 25 to Sept. 29 after the Jakarta administration requested vendors there to change their business licenses from apotek rakyat to a regular drugstore. (ecn/ebf)
