China's top legislature would strengthen law-enforcement inspection on major issues having a bearing on the country's reform, opening up and stability this year, top legislator Wu Bangguo said Wednesday.
Wu, chairman of the Standing Committee of the National People's Congress, told an annual NPC session that this year the NPC Standing Committee would focus its law-enforcement inspection on the implementation of laws on agriculture, water resources, the legitimate rights of workers, work safety, especially in coal mines, and judicial justice.
Chinese Constitution and relevant law endowed the parliament with the power of supervision, and law-enforcement inspection has been an important form of supervision.
The NPC Standing Committee will listen and review a report by the State Council, China's cabinet, on the development of agriculture and rural areas this year, while carrying out investigations into how the policies to support agriculture, the countryside and farmers are implemented, according to Wu.
Major issues concerning agriculture, the countryside and farmers remain to be top concern of the Chinese government as the country is trying to feed its 1.3 billion population. Last year, the NPC Standing Committee dispatched lawmakers' teams to 15 provincial localities for inspecting the implementation of related laws and policies.
China's grain production increased by 38.8 billion kilograms to 469.5 billion kilograms last year, the first rise after years of drops. Premier Wen Jiabao pledged last Saturday that the government would formulate more incentive policies to support agriculture, rural areas and farmers this year.
On issues concerning water resources, Wu said, the legislature's inspection would concentrate on the implementation of laws on water pollution control and water, in a bid to promote the protection, conservation and rational utilization of water resources.
According to the Ministry of Water Resources, more than 300 million rural residents still do not have access to or afford safe drinking water, and 190 million others have to drink water with excessive hazardous substances.
The government has worked out a plan to reduce the number of rural residents who do not access to clean, safe water by one third by 2010, and guarantee clean, safe water to the 300 million rural residents by 2020.
The NPC Standing Committee's planned inspection into issues related to the legitimate rights of workers this year will be centered on the implementation of the Labor Law to make sure the minimum salary system for workers be carried out and continue to prompt enterprises to pay defaulted payment to workers and government departments to ensure social insurance funds.
The inspection of work safety, especially in coal mines, this year, said Wu, is aimed to help various localities, departments and work units to strengthen work safety and take effective measures to prevent major fatal accidents from happening, to safeguard the life and property of the people.
According to statistics of the State General Administration of Work Safety, coal mine accidents killed a total of 6,027 people last year, amid a growing number traffic accidents.
In his government work report read out at the NPC's annual session last Saturday, Premier Wen Jiabao promised the government would work hard to improve industrial safety throughout the country, giving "top priority" to coal mining safety.
(Xinhua News Agency March 9, 2005)
