Family planning fines spark row in China

A Chinese county has denied claims that it attempted to raise fines from family planning policy violators to support its cash-strapped government treasury, officials said.

Lyu Xianpo, deputy government head of Xiping county, Henan province, said the county recently carried out a campaign on family planning violations in order to curb the rise of such cases in the past two years, reported Xinhua.

The county launched the move in late June, targeting some 17,000 government staffers, Communist Party of China members and public employees, according to Lyu.

A report posted on the website of the Economic Observer newspaper Aug 2 quoted some people as claiming the law enforcement campaign intends to raise money to replenish a budget deficit in the county government.

However, an official with the county's finance bureau said the county's fiscal difficulty doesn't exist, as financial revenue has been increasing annually since 2010 and grew 11.6 percent on a year-on-year basis in the first half of 2013.

The county government said it will investigate whether there are any irregularities or corruption in the implementation of the family planning policy among officials.

Home to 1.34 billion people, China has kept the family planning policy for more than three decades due to its huge pressure to provide public services to its people.