Deputies' motions come up trumps

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Last updated at: (Beijing Time) Friday, March 05, 2004

Deputies' motions come up trumps

Motions proposed by deputies during last year's plenary session of the 10th National People's Congress (NPC), the country's top legislature, have paid off.

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Motions proposed by deputies during last year's plenary session of the 10th National People's Congress (NPC), the country's top legislature, have paid off.

Last year, the secretariat of the first session of the 10th NPC received 1,050 proposals and it decided to hand 338 of them over to the NPC's special working committees for further examination, sources with the NPC Standing Committee said Thursday.

The motions covered a wide spectrum of issues, ranging from agricultural restructuring and the reform of State-owned enterprises to environmental protection and information security.

Among the 338 motions, 327 involved revising and coming up with new laws. Thirty-five legislative projects, which were mentioned in 123 motions, have been listed in the 10th NPC Standing Committee's five-year legislative plan.

Five laws proposed by the NPC deputies have been passed by the NPC Standing Committee.

They concentrate on the prevention and control of radioactive pollution, ports, citizens' identification cards, administrative licensing and traffic safety.

Zulfiya Abukhadir, an NPC deputy from Northwest China's Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region, was one of the driving forces behind the traffic safety law.

Her other motion, which suggests the country should legislate on the promotion of agricultural mechanization, has also received feedback.

The NPC Standing Committee made a preliminary review of the agricultural mechanization draft law at the end of last month.

The motions form a major channel for the NPC deputies to exercise State power.

A provincial-level delegation of NPC deputies, or a group of at least 30 deputies, can submit their motions -- including bills and proposals -- to the NPC plenary session.

Once motions are received, the secretariat of the NPC session can forward some of the motions to the nine NPC special working committees, which decide if they should be put on the agenda of the NPC plenary session or the agenda of the NPC Standing Committee.

The nine working committees specialize in lawmaking, internal and judicial affairs, economic and financial affairs, environmental and resources protection, education, science and culture, agriculture and rural affairs, ethical affairs, foreign affairs and issues concerning overseas Chinese.

Wang Weizhong, an NPC deputy from Northeast China's Jilin Province, says he is encouraged by the way the motions are being handled.

Wang's motion that the country's Criminal Procedure Code should be revised to improve the collection of evidence and means of identification has been adopted by the NPC Law Committee.

This year, Wang is offering 14 motions, covering everything from voluntary education and advertising to rural affairs.

"I will call on the government and legislators to pay more attention to the protection of farmers-turned workers this year," Wang said. "Their interests and rights should be better protected by the law."

Wang said his motions are based on extensive research. He spent 20 days visiting most of the rural areas in his province to see what farmers needed the most before sitting down to write his motion.

"I will convince the legislators by the facts and figures in my motion," he said.

According to the Organic Law of the NPC and NPC rules for the discharging of its duties, a motion within the NPC can also be raised by the presidium of the NPC, the NPC Standing Committee, the State Council, the Supreme People's Court and the Supreme People's Procuratorate.

Source: China Daily

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