China's Ministry of Public Security on Thursday formally announced and put into effect a set of regulations that obliges heads of public security bureaus (PSB) at the county and prefecture levels to "regularly meet petitioners and personally handle problems raised by the petitioners".

The regulations, which also contain other articles, in general aim to expedite the making and processing of petitions.

China's State Council, the country's main administrative organ, amended a set of state-level regulations concerning petitions earlier this year. Analysts say the Chinese government is determined to introduce reform to this sector to better address social complaints, which could threaten social stability and social harmony if left unattended.

Dissatisfied petitioners, whose complaints weren't properly dealt with, have in the past camped outside the gates of government agencies and/or influential media organizations.

According to the regulations, all public security departments at prefecture and city level are required to set up a special department to handle petitions, and public security departments at county level are required to set up a special department or designate a certain department to handle petitions.

In addition, all public security departments at city, prefecture and county levels must arrange special days for PSB chiefs to meet petitioners in person.

The regulations give mandate to a campaign that was launched in May to handle the backlog of complaints that PSBs found themselves faced with. The campaign is scheduled to end in September.

As part of the campaign, the ministry made similar orders to heads of PSBs at county and prefecture levels to "meet all the petitioners in person and ensure all the petitions are addressed in line with law".

Since the campaign was officially inaugurated on May 18, more than 3,600 PSBs had received 185,000 petitions as at August 17, according to ministry statistics.

An official with the ministry said that these petitions even helped authorities crack 16,000 criminal cases.

(Xinhua News Agency August 19, 2005)