Transmigration has big impact

PALANGKA RAYA: Over 300,000 people have been resettled under the state-sponsored transmigration program in the past 12 months, an official said Saturday.

Chief of the local transmigration office Wagiyo said the resettlers, mostly from Java, had been placed in 175 resettlement units.

He said transmigrants had made enormous contributions to the development of Central Kalimantan, especially in agriculture, manpower and in clearing unused land for agriculture.

Transmigration in the province started in the 1960s with the placement of 400 Javanese families.

Wagiyo said Central Kalimantan needed up to 1.5 million people to make the project creating one million hectares of peat land a success, Antara reported. (pan)