NPC Deputy Proposes Law on Resettlement of People Displaced by Water ProjectsChina is badly in need of a law on the protection of the rights and interests of people displaced by water projects, said an NPC deputy at the annual NPC session Monday.From central China's Henan Province, NPC deputy Jin Xing said that China has built more than 8,600 reservoirs since the founding of New China in 1949, displacing more than 10 million people. However, Jin pointed out, despite of state support, many of the relocated residents still have difficulties in getting access to clean drinking water and electricity and in sending their children to school and seeking medical service due to low compensations and harsh conditions in places where they have been resettled. Many of them have to reclaim farmland from forests to make a living, resulting in serious soil erosion and deterioration in the local ecological environment, Jin said. Such plight of the people is attributable to the lack of a law on the resettlement of people displaced by construction projects, Jin noted. The law, he said, should include such articles as increasing government investment to improve the living conditions of relocated people, raising compensation standards and granting preferential treatment to relocated people in the use of electricity and water for agricultural production and in education. |
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