The owners had demolished some parts of the house, and now we just do the finishing for normalization project

As many as 5 two-story shophouses at the edge of the Ciliwung River, Jalan Jatinegara Barat, Kampung Melayu, were demolished by East Jakarta Satpol PP officers. Demolishment involving 70 Satpol PP officers is a continuation of previous activity that managed to demolish 13 buildings. That means. there has been 18 buildings demolished for normalization program.

Before demolishment, those 5 buildings were already vacated by the owners. Even, they (owners) had demolished most of the material such as doors, windows and roof by themselves. The officer role is only knocking down the building's walls using an heavy equipment type beckhoe.

Head of Operational Section for East Jakarta Satpol PP, Agus Sidiki disclosed demolishment is part of the Ciliwung River normalization program initiated by the Ministry of Public Works. Eventually, similar thing was planned to be done in RW 01, 02, 03, Kampung Pulo, with 531 buildings occupied by 40 households.

"The owners had demolished some parts of the house, and now we just do the finishing for normalization project," he expressed, Wednesday (9/3).

Head of Jatinegara Sub-District, Sofyan Taher added his side is still waiting for further from Jakarta Provincial Government, whether the owners will get compensation or not. He mentions, majority of citizens only have building certificate on the state land.

"90 percent of citizens living in Kampung Pulo only have a seal letter. The letter is surely not valid as the land ownership," he stated.