Baomuxi and Baijiatan villages in Zhijiang County, central China's Hunan Province, now have two new schools to send their children to.

The money used should have been paid to farmers in the county in 1977, and after urging from the local People's Congress, the local government was forced to fork out last April.

Because most of the laborers to whom the money was owed have either died or moved away, the money went into a central fund for education and medical projects, and the schools are a result.

"This is a typical example of how the People's Congress plays its role in supervising and regulating government behavior according to the constitution," said Hu Jinguang, a law professor at Renmin University of China.

In 1992, deputies of the People's Congress in the county delivered recommendations urging the government to pay 3.1 million yuan (US$378,000) to workers who had not been paid for building the Chunyangtan power station in 1977.

In 1996, the county government reported to the standing committee of the congress, promising to pay the labor costs within five years. Last March, they were paid in full.

Under the same principle, the local government was urged to pay farmers for their work in the same year.

"It is unfair for farmers to get no pay from years of hard work when the government promised to pay workers for building the power station," said the advice.

"The People's Congress, as the top agency of state power, should use its authority more actively in the future, especially towards issues left over from the past," said the vice-dean of Renmin University's Law School Han Dayuan.

Han also called to strengthen supervision and regulations towards government behavior by the People's Congress.

(www.chinadaily.com.cn 05/08/2001)