People's Deputies Dedicated to Improving People's Lives

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Last updated at: (Beijing Time) Tuesday, July 23, 2002

People's Deputies Dedicated to Improving People's Lives

The residents of an outlying, needy mountain village are set to move to cozy and comfortable homes thanks to the efforts of a people's deputy to the local people's congress.

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The residents of an outlying, needy mountain village are set to move to cozy and comfortable homes thanks to the efforts of a people's deputy to the local people's congress.

Ma Hongbing, municipal deputy to the People's Congress of Qingdao, a beautiful port city in east China, made submissions on behalf of the villagers from 1998 to 2000.

Liangquan (cool spring) village, which 42 years ago was a relatively well off place, is now the poorest village in the Laoshan district of Qingdao city in Shandong province. In 1958, 321 families from Liangquan village were displaced and moved to the valley. To protect the reservoir's water quality, the villagers had to give up mining or plowing the land for 42 years. Instead they became indebted to the tune of nearly 1 million yuan (120,000US dollars) by 1999, with the annual income of over one-third of its residents less than 1,500 yuan (180 US dollars).

Ma visited the village several times and decided to report its plight to the local government and the standing committee of the People's Congress. After his persistent appeals, the local governments agreed to build new homes for the villagers.

"It can't be enough for the 1,009 villagers of Liangquan to thank Deputy Ma," said Liu Chengtian, secretary of the Communist Party branch of the village and chairman of the village committee. "We have never dreamed of living in tall and spacious buildings, but now it is a reality."

Ma, twice town-level deputy and twice municipal-level deputy, has made a total of 647 submissions to local people's congresses. In Shandong province, many deputies like Ma are working hard to solve local folks' problems.

They call for pollution treatment, city reconstruction, and also for retraining laid-off workers. The deputies voice their opinions and suggestions not only during the people's congresses, but between the sessions.

In the Weicheng district of Weifang city, renowned as the "kite capital", the standing committee of the city's people's congress set up a "deputy day" every two months for local deputies to make live inspections and investigations.

During this July, 12 deputies in Weicheng district visited three main roads under construction, and set forth numerous suggestions regarding underground lines and cables, all the views of nearby residents.

The role of people's deputies is not only to supervise urban development, but also improve city environments. Weihai is a coastal city in the east tip of Shandong peninsula, which the United Nations calls the best residential place for human beings. During the past five years, deputies at various levels in Weihai city have made over 80 suggestions on environmental protection, and all were accepted by the local government.

Dong Fengji, vice-chairman of the standing committee of the provincial people's congress, said that the deputies to the local People's Congress put up bridges between people and their government. On one hand, they reflected the people's views to the government and, on the other hand, they took the government's requirements to the people, thus ensuring society worked soundly.

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