Government officials who violate the family planning policy will be sacked, instead of no promotion for three years, according to a revised regulation approved by the standing committee of Hubei provincial people's congress over the weekend.

The Changjiang Times reported on Monday that the regulation, passed on Saturday, aims to deal with new situations arising from the implementation of the family planning policy.

China has a national law on family planning, but local governments can implement it in accordance to their own situations. In recent years, due to an ageing population, many provinces have started to revise their regulations.

"Under the revised rule, offending officials will be barred from government employment," an official of the population and family planning commission of Hubei Province, who declined to be named, told China Daily on Monday.

The previous regulation issued in 2003 called only for the suspension of officials from office for three years, in addition to a warning.

In bid to tackle the problem of children born through extramarital relations, which is quite common among some officials, the regulation allows for the investigation of officials who deny having more than one child.

Last year, 1,678 officials or Party members violated the family planning policy, the provincial family planning commission said.

"More Party members, celebrities and well-off people have been violating the policy in recent years, which has undermined social equality," Duan Chengrong, a professor with the research center for population and development, Renmin University of China, told China Daily on Monday.

"Civil servants and the Party members should set a good example for the whole society," he said.

The family planning policy was enacted in the late 1970s to limit families to one child and encourage late marriages and childbearing.

(China Daily December 2, 2008)