Nearly 15,000 policemen in this Chinese capital will be patrolling the streets to ensure security during the upcoming "two sessions" period, when the country's most important political event of the year will be staged.

The fortnight-long "two sessions" refer to the annual full sessions of China's national legislature, the National People's Congress (NPC), and top advisory body, the National Committee of the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference (CPPCC). The NPC and CPPCC sessions are slated to open in the Great Hall of the People in downtown Beijing on March 5 and 3, respectively.

The police, "all deployed on key security positions," will be assisted by some 620,000 local citizens who volunteer to help maintain order and safeguard security "on major streets and in small alleys across the city," the Beijing News reported on Thursday.

"In the first 20 days of February, city police cracked 1,640 criminal cases and detained 1,352 criminal suspects. The city now enjoys a stable and sound public order," a leading official with the Beijing Municipal Public Security Department was quoted as saying.

The official also noted that a thorough safety check was conducted throughout the city prior to the "two sessions" to eliminate "all hidden dangers of fire, explosion and other safety accidents."

Also on Thursday, a senior official with the Chinese Ministry of Public Security denied allegations that the police are " persuading" petitioners who have come to Beijing to seek justice " to go back home."

"For those law-abiding petitioners from outside Beijing with justified reasons, the public security departments will neither impose any restrictions nor persuade them to go back to their hometown," said Xu Hu, vice director of the public order management bureau under the ministry, at a press conference here.

But Xu added that as usual, the police will "persuade" some people who have been "idling in Beijing for a long time without a proper job, fixed residence or stable income" to go back to their home provinces.

"This was aimed at reducing certain factors that might harm public order, which is also necessary for maintaining a stable social order," he explained.

"Beijing is the capital for all the Chinese people, so we won't bar anyone from coming to the city during the 'two sessions' period," Wu Heping, the ministry's spokesman, also told the press on Thursday.

Source: Xinhua