Chinese vice premier inspects quake-hit areas in E. China province

Chinese Vice Premier Hui Liangyu has inspected the earthquake-hit Ruichang City and Jiujiang County in east China's Jiangxi Province, calling for more effort to help resettle the victims.

"We must ensure that all the people are well provided for with adequate food, clothes, housing, accommodation and medical services," said Hui, who is also member of the Political Bureau of the Communist Party of China (CPC) Central Committee and chief of the State Council's headquarters on disaster relief.

Assigned by President Hu Jintao and Premier Wen Jianbao, the vice premier made rounds of local hospitals, schools, resettlement sites, food quality inspection stations and the dam along the Yangtze River on Thursday and Friday in Ruichang and Jiujiang, which were hit hardest by the earthquake which measured 5.7 on the Richter scale last Saturday.

The quake affected the provinces of Jiangxi, Hubei and Anhui, which killed 13 people.

In addition, a large number of people in the hardest hit areas were obliged to live in tents after their houses were destroyed or damaged by the quake, which occurred in a densely populated urban area.

Hui said the central government is greatly concerned for the people in the quake-stricken areas and local governments should try their utmost to resume the normal operations of public services as soon as possible.

The three provinces have made great marked achievements in disaster relief and while the relief effort remains arduous as the weather turns colder and colder, the homeless need to be quickly resettled, said Hui.

Hui also required the three provinces to further improve their quake monitoring networks and raise public awareness on how to better survive earthquakes.

Source: Xinhua