People who wanted to express their views about a proposed new law on building requisitions have rushed to submit their opinions before Friday's deadline.

Two proposals representing the views of 5,479 residents in Beijing and 7,000 from Central China's Hunan province were submitted to the Legislative Affairs Office of the State Council on Wednesday, the Beijing News reported on Wednesday.

"We must give our opinions because the law will relate to our personal interests," Luo Qichun, who is in charge of collecting the signed comments of the Beijing residents, told the paper. "I hope the policy will speak exactly for the people," said Huan Tiejun, who collected the comments in Hunan.

Mao Shoulong, a professor at the public administration college of Renmin University of China, said: "It's very important for the citizens to discuss their possible losses and gains (related to building requisitions) in detail."

In addition, two institutions at Peking University delivered their written opinions to the office earlier this week, the Beijing Times reported on Wednesday.

The office has been receiving opinions from the public since Dec 15 when it published the second draft of the Ordinance on the Requisition and Compensation of Buildings on State-owned Land.

The move came after the office revised the first draft published in late January on the basis of more than 65,000 comments and suggestions submitted by the public.

The second draft says that local governments will not be allowed to use their administrative rights to forcibly demolish citizens' properties, and that forced home demolitions must go through the courts.

The new draft also prohibits any organization or individual from using violence, threats or other illegal acts, such as cutting off water, electricity and transport access, to force relocations.

The draft has attracted a lot of public attention as building and land requisitions have caused violence between owners and developers, and even suicides on the part of some owners, events that sparked public outcries.

As of late Wednesday, more than 9,000 participants had submitted their opinions about the draft, according to the official website set up to canvass public opinion.

They can also hand in their opinions at the office, or post or e-mail them.

(China Daily December 30, 2010)