Govt to Provide Compensation for Lombok Quake Victims
Coordinating Minister Wiranto together with West Nusa Tenggara Governor TGB M. Zainul Majdi
The Government has planned to provide compensation for the dead and the injured in the 7.0-magnitude earthquake that rocked the Indonesian tourist island of Lombok, West Nusa Tenggara (NTB) province on Sunday (5/8) evening.
The compensation amounts to Rp15 million for dead victims and Rp2.5 for injured victims.
Minister of Social Affairs Idrus Marham explained that recovery process will be put in place in the near future. He admitted to have discussed the issue with Coordinating Minister for Political, Legal and Security Affairs Wiranto affirming that following the emergency response, the Government plans to provide a life guarantee for the affected residents for the next two or three months.
“We have asked the Regent to collect the data regarding families affected by the earthquake immediately. Afterwards, we will provide a life guarantee for the next three months,” Idrus said while accompanying Coordinating Minister Wiranto inspect the evacuation of foreign tourists in Bangsal harbor, North Lombok, NTB province on Tuesday (7/8).
Idrus also emphasized that the Government has considered the next measure to be taken after the recovery process, which is to rebuild houses affected by the quake. As previously reported, President Joko Jokowi Widodo on 29 July visited Sambelia Subdistrict, North Lombok Regency and announced a policy to renovate the houses by providing aid worth from Rp10 million to Rp50 million.
“We have already discussed the measures. Coordinating Minister and I are here to check how far the measures have been executed and the Military Resort Commander will lead the monitoring,” Idrus said.
In the meantime, Wiranto mentioned that the death toll reported until Tuesday (7/8) at 08.00 Central Indonesian Time has reached 116 people, with 29 bodies remaining unidentified. “The death toll is likely to rise after the debris from collapsed houses are lifted. Therefore, let’s pray that we will not find too many victims from the ruins,” Wiranto said.
After two days leading the handling of the earthquake disaster in Lombok, Wiranto handed over the task given by the President to NTB Governor TGB Muhammad Zainul Majdi. He went on to explain that two days after the quake hit the region, all Government measures have been well organized.
Given the fact that the issue can be handled by the Governor, the prompt measures which are actually limited to strengthening and mentoring task are now deemed complete, he said.
“So, today I delegate the entire leadership for the next countermeasures to the Governor and the Task Force,” Wiranto said, adding that evacuation process of foreign tourists from Gili Trawangan has completed.
“We would like to thank all officers for executing their duties very well,” Wiranto concluded.
For the record, as many as 2,000 tourists are reportedly in Gili Trawangan and the number is expected to increase to more than seven thousand. (Public Relations Division of Coordinating Minister for Political, Legal, and Security Affairs/ES) (MUR/EP/YM/Naster).
