A senior official of the National People's Congress (NPC) on Wednesday brought attention to the fact that more than 40 million Chinese farmers had their farmlands partially or wholly used for other purposes.

There have emerged prominent problems regarding these rural laborers' production and living, and social instability.

The remarks were made by Uyun Qimg, vice chairwoman of the NPC Standing Committee, in a report on the implementation of the Law on Agriculture to the ongoing 18th session of the 10th NPC Standing Committee.

According to official figures from the complaint reception bureau of the NPC Standing Committee, 2,938 letters from the people were received in 2003 and 5,407 in 2004, mostly involving illegal confiscation and occupation of farmlands, irrational compensation to farmers who lost land, and failure to properly resettle the affected rural families.

In her report, Uyun Qimg also accused some employers of failing to sign contracts with the employees from the countryside, while these transient workers have to work overtime, get less pay, and lack assurance for their work safety.

In 2004, the average monthly pay for transient workers from rural areas stood at 780 yuan (about 97.5 US dollars), 58 percent of that of their urban counterparts.

In cities, rural transients mostly do dirty, tiring, risky and heavy jobs. More than half of them suffer from occupational diseases.

Source: Xinhua