Legislators suggest setting up state Chengguan department

Photo shows an attractive chengguan officer, in southwest China's Chengguan. Chengguan tries to spruce its image. [Photo: West China City Daily]

(ECNS) -- Legislators in Jiangsu province have proposed a state administration department to oversee urban management, which is currently carried out locally, a local newspaper said on Tuesday. [Special coverage]

The Modern Express, a Xinhua-run daily published in Jiangsu, said legislators in the province will jointly hand in a proposal about the country's urban management officials, or Chengguan.

Wang Yi, a drafter of the proposal and a law professor at Yangzhou University, said Chengguan officers have long been controversial, although they have played an important role in urban management, so they need a state administration department to become their public voice.

Li Qiming, another drafter of the proposal and also a Chengguan officer in Nanjing city, commented on the uniforms worn by Chengguan officers, which vary in color from city to city.

"The chaos of the uniforms weakens the image of Chengguan, and also shows the disunity of urban management," Li said.

The roles of chengguan were set in line with reply letters from the State Council between 1995 and 2002, which included dealing with noncriminal administrative concerns such as noise control, parking and sanitation, said Wang Yi, but a specific law should be made to define their duties clearly.

Chengguan officers are much maligned for their bullying behavior in dealing with street vendors and protesters, and such cases always make headlines, he added.