11,000 face eviction

11,000 face eviction

CILACAP, Central Java: Over 11,000 people in Segara Anakan subdistrict will have to surrender their homes to make way for an irrigation project.

"We are going to resettle the villagers from Ujungalang, Ujunggagak and Panikel villages affected by the irrigation project," Cilacap Regent HM Supardi said on Thursday.

He said the 2,700-hectare area of land the villagers occupy belongs to the state-owned forestry company, Perhutani, and the local administration has given 3,000 hectares of substitute land to the company.

He said that he would ask the villagers to join the state- sponsored transmigration program in order to be resettled on an outer island.

He said the villagers, most of whom were fishermen, would be resettled to the sparsely populated eastern provinces, Antara reported. (rms)