Jakarta – Over 500 fishermen from Kalam Muara, North Jakarta, held a rally at noon Thursday in front of the City Council, to protest land reclamation at their fishing grounds.

"We want the government to get rid of regulations that burden the people. Our fishing grounds are our only source of income," said one of the fishermen, Asep.

"Compensating us with just Rp. 1 million (US$107) each is not enough. Building a single fish farm costs Rp 8 million, not to mention the loss of future income," Asep said.

Spokesperson for the protesters Didik told The Jakarta Post the first eviction happened in February when officials from Kalam Muara subdistrict administration collected data from the fishermen and paid them Rp 1 million each. There were 93 evictions at that time.

At present, there are at least 2,000 fish farms around Kalam Muara seaboard, which generate income of Rp 1 to 2 million per month for each fisherman.

Didik said the local authorities had never asked for their opinion or discussed the matter prior to the evictions.

Land reclamation is a multibillion rupiah project undertaken by the city government with the aim of expanding Jakarta's land and protecting seashores against land degradation due to floods and irresponsible waste disposal.

Ten fishermen were then allowed to enter the City Council to meet two councillors, Tubagus Arif and Arkeno, both from the Prosperous Justice Party (PKS).

Tubagus said his commission would organize a meeting to discuss the matter with related government agencies and promised to visit Kalam Muara soon.

Any eviction in the area is considered illegal because the city administration never planned to develop the areas around Kalam Muara.

"There must be a third party in this incident. The focus of the provincial government is still toward the inner-city not the city outskirts," he said.

"There is indeed a plan for land reclamation as stated in provincial regulation No.6/1999, but it is still far from being materialized as no rules of the game have been set to govern the operation, "We have found many similar cases. Third parties are exploiting the provincial regulation for their own benefit," Tubagus said.

The fishermen mentioned one property developer, PT. Mandara Permai, who they claimed was one of the investors behind the evictions, but the company denied it through their secretary officer, Fui Ling, by saying that they did not have any projects around that area.