The Tangerang legislative council on Monday demanded the administration evaluate more carefully data on cash aid recipients across the regency to avoid violent protests.
"The administration must learn the lessons of 2005 when residents attacked village administration offices in several districts because of invalid data," said Endang Sujana, the legislature speaker.
He said the administration should undertake an accurate collection of data before distributing the cash aid to lower income residents, to ensure the aid reaches those most in need.
"In 2005, many residents who were eligible for the aid were not listed, and some who were not eligible were listed," he said.
Figures released in 2006 by the Central Statistics Agency (BPS) show there are 31,254 poor families in Tangerang municipality and 254,485 in the regency.
"Such figures will likely increase by about 3 percent this year because of various factors such as mass layoffs, food price increases and economic fluctuations during 2006," said Yeane Irmaningrum, head of Tangerang BPS.
She said the BPS was worried about the impact unverified or invalid data would have on the agency itself, because the BPS has been the target of violent protests before.
"We don't have the authority to carry out our own surveys for data verification because we can only authorize survey proposals from each administration," she said.
Mas Iman Kusnandar, Tangerang administration assistant, said the regency did not yet have a fixed timetable for the distribution of the aid.
"We are waiting for the local post offices to be properly prepared," he said.
Syamsul Irawan, Tangerang Post Office deputy chief, said there was still no word on when the cash aid would be distributed, although 45 staff members had already been trained to help in the distribution process.
"I haven't been informed on when the cash aid distribution will start. I hope we can do it as soon as possible to relieve the tension," he said.
He said post offices throughout Tangerang were awaiting instructions from headquarters in Jakarta.
"I have organized a meeting with the local administration, as well as district and subdistrict officials. The problem is, there hasn't been any information from the East Jakarta post office," Syamsul said.
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