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.
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An official with the ministry said that these petitions even helped
authorities crack 16,000 criminal cases.
(Xinhua News Agency August 19, 2005)