President Widodo To Visit People Displaced By Mt Sinabung Eruption

Medan, N Sumatra (Antara Bali) - President Joko Widodo (Jokowi) will inspect the arrangements made for people displaced by the eruption of Mount Sinabung in Karo district, North Sumatra province.

The visit to Karo district is the main agenda of the President's two-day working visit to North Sumatra, a spokesman for the Bukit Barisan Regional Military Command, Colonel Enoh Solehuddin said on Tuesday.

The President is scheduled to arrive at the Soewondo Air base in Medan, the capital of North Sumatra province, on Thursday after paying a visit to Kalimantan.

He will then meet with the people displaced due to the eruption of Mount Sinabung and inspect the efforts made for their resettlement near the site of the volcanic eruption in the Siosar area in Karo district.

The Deputy Governor of North Sumatra, Tengku Erry Nuradi, had said earlier that every household of refugees displaced due to the eruption would receive a house and half a hectare of farming land from the government as compensation.

The government has allocated 185 hectares for this purpose and each family will receive half a hectare, he added, after attending a limited cabinet meeting led by President Joko Widodo in Jakarta on Monday.

The latest major eruption took place on September 5 and was the continuation of the first one that had occurred in 2010, Nuradi explained.

After spending the night in Medan, the President will inspect the construction of the Kuala Tanjung port in Batubara district on Friday.

He will later proceed to Binjai City.

"After performing the Friday prayers, he will return to Jakarta," Solehuddin said. (WDY)