SOME 475 NTB FAMILIES TO BE RESETTLED IN OTHER REGIONS

Mataram, West Nusa Tenggara (NTB) Province, April 10 (ANTARA) - Some 475 families in West Nusa Tenggara will be resettled elsewhere in the country this year under the government-sponsored transmigration program, a local transmigration official said.

The families would be resettled in Bima, Sumbawa Barat, Dompu and Lombok Timur districts, Sirojul Munir, head of the manpower and transmigration office of NTB, said here on Saturday.

Each district in NTB would receive 100 families, while the remaining 75 families would be resettled in West Kalimantan, Gorontalo and Southeast Sulawesi, with each of the three provinces receiving 25 families , he said.

Last year, 400 families in Lombok were resettled in other areas, including outside NTB, he said.

The relocation of NTB residents was being carried out based on a memorandum of understanding (MoU) between the NTB governor and governors of provinces willing to receive transmigrants.

Prior to the arrival of the transmigrants, the governments of the receiving regions would build houses and houses of worship, designate farming areas and set up health facilities for the transmirants.

The transmigration program has been carried out by the government since 1974 with the objective of improving the people's welfare, opening job opportunities, and distributing population evenly throughout the country.

Each family receives among other things one house and one hectare of farming land.

Having a population of around 230 million people, Indonesia consists of as many as 17,000 islands but only a few are large ones namely Papua, Kalimantan, Sulawesi, Sumatra and Java.

More than 100 million live on Java Island alone, the smallest among the five big islands.