China has planned to uproot thousands of people to build the biggest radio telescope in the world. Development work for the project will be conducted in southwestern China, and the telescope may be fully operational later this year.

With this plan, the biggest Asian economy in East Asia has signaled that is going to speed up its search for extra-terrestrial life. But in the process, China is neglecting its own people. According to reports, 9,100 residents will be displaced. These people will be given 12,000 yuan as compensation, which is equal to $1,800.

People against the development said that the 1,640-foot-wide telescope, called Five-hundred-meter Aperture Spherical Radio Telescope (FAST), is not going to solve China’s biggest problems, such as traffic or pollution. They also said that China has ignored earthlings in search of aliens.

The FAST has 460,000 reflective mirrors that are capable of reflecting signals emitted by the universe onto a 30-ton antenna. Researchers in favor of the telescope’s construction said the next biggest radio telescope will help in revealing whether we are alone in the universe, or there is someone looking at us.

If everything goes as per the plan, the FAST project, worth $184 million, will wrap up in September this year. To make that happen, more than 9,000 people will be forced to leave their homes for a small amount of money. It is not the first time, when thousands of people in China are forced to evacuate their places. About six years ago, more than 300,000 residents asked to move during the construction on Three Gorges Dam. Back in 70s, more than 40 million Chinese were forced to leave for various public projects.