|
JAKARTA - INDONESIAN police have been told to stand guard over the distribution of cash assistance to the poor aimed at offsetting a planned fuel price hike, a spokesman said on Thursday.
Indonesia has been hit by almost daily protests in past weeks over the government plan to raise fuel prices in order to rein the ballooning cost of subsidies.
Subsidised fuel prices will increase on average by 28.7 per cent soon, the government announced on Wednesday.
'The (national) police chief has instructed all provincial police chiefs to secure cash distributions... should there be large crowds,' police spokesman Abubakar Nataprawira told reporters.
The government plans to distribute monthly payments of 100,000 rupiah (S$15) per household to about 19.1 million poor families to soften the impact. Distributions of the vouchers started on Tuesday.
Mr Nataprawira said stone-throwing protesters injured two police officers and a television crew during a rally against the hikes in front of the presidential palace on Wednesday.
He warned of 'certain people with the intention of provoking clashes between protesters and the police'. -- AFP
| 
