Committees Cultivate Grassroots DemocracyThe implementation of the law on the organization of urban neighbourhood committees has "effectively" mobilized grass-roots democracy in the past decade in China, senior legislator Tian Jiyun said Monday."The urban neighbourhood committees have helped raise public awareness and encouraged people to participate in government and political affairs," said Tian, who is the vice-chairman of the Standing Committee of the Ninth National People's Congress (NPC), China's top legislative body. Tian spoke to legislators who gathered yesterday before starting to inspect the implementation of the 11-year-old law on urban neighbourhood committees early next month. Urban neighbourhood committees and village committees in rural areas are both self-governing grassroots organizations, according to the Constitution. The directors and members of urban neighbourhood committees are selected by local residents. The committees will usually be divided into sections, each of which will concentrate on either mediation, public security or sanitation. The Constitution stipulates that urban neighbourhood committees are to assist the local government in handling public affairs, to help mediate disputes among residents and to voice the suggestions, criticisms and demands of the residents to the government. Every area with 100 to 700 households should establish one urban neighbourhood committee, according to the law on the organization of the committees. China currently has 115,000 urban neighbourhood committees, which manage the country's nearly 400 million urban residents and over 70 million floating population, NPC sources said. Tian referred to the urban neighbourhood committees as a "training class" for democracy for urban residents. Over 74 per cent of urban residents participated in the elections for the urban neighbourhood committees in Central China's Hunan Province last year, according to Li Baoku, vice-minister of civil affairs. Li said urban neighbourhood committees have played an important role in helping the government offer services to residents. The reform of health services, old-age care and unemployment welfare means that there is an increasing need for community services. The law needs to be further enforced to offer better services to urban residents, Li said. The NPC Standing Committee will dispatch four groups of legislators to inspect the implementation of the law in Harbin and Benxi in Northeast China, Shanghai and Nanjing in East China, Lanzhou and Urumqi in Northwest China, and Kunming and Guiyang in Southwest China early next month. (Chinadaily) |
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