TheJakartaPost
Please Update your browser
Your browser is out of date, and may not be compatible with our website. A list of the most popular web browsers can be found below.
Just click on the icons to get to the download page.
City to demolish houses rebuilt by victims of West Jakarta blaze, Sandiaga warns
Change Size
Dozens of houses are seen in Taman Kota in West Jakarta, on March 30, a day after a fire broke out in the area. (Warta Kota/Angga Bhagya Nugraha)
T
he city has warned victims of a recent fire that hit Taman Kota, West Jakarta, that it will demolish houses that are rebuilt, while urging victims to move to low-cost apartments.
“I will firmly tell them that the site will function as an open space […]," Jakarta Deputy Governor Sandiaga Uno said on Wednesday.
He said the Jakarta administration would not allow anyone to rebuild houses on the 3,000 hectares of land where a neighborhood burned down in March, leaving two dead and 450 families homeless. The fire razed more than 500 houses.
Sandiaga further said that the donations the victims had received from the Muslim Charitable Donations Board (Bazis) Jakarta were not intended to be used for buying building materials.
“Don’t use the [donation] money to buy building materials. If you do [build the houses], we will demolish them,” he said as quoted by kompas.com.
Sandiaga urged the victims to move to low-cost apartments in Rawa Buaya, West Jakarta.
Rawa Buaya apartment management head Sarjoko said that, of the 450 families, only two of them were willing to move to an apartment, as the others wanted to stay on the torched land.
"The others have returned the keys that we had distributed to them,” Sarjoko said. “According to staff that met with the victims, [they told the staff that] they’re allowed to return to the burned land, but we don’t know who gave them the order.” (stu)
