China's civil servants have begun responding the 6,511 suggestions raised by deputies during the fourth session of the 10th National People's Congress (NPC), or parliament.

Most of the suggestions were given to 174 relevant government departments for a response, the NPC Standing Comm ittee announced Monday.

Wang Wanbin, deputy secretary-general of the NPC Standing Committee, said the number of the suggestions had risen by 627, or 10.66 percent, from last year.

"We transferred 6147 suggestions to 174 departments for responses. And 292 suggestions were given to government departments for reference, while 72 suggestions were shelved as there were too vague and general," said Wang.

Among the suggestions, 1,410 were given to the Ministry of Finance, accounting for 23 percent of the total, 1,364 were transferred to the State Development and Reform Commission, 646 to the Ministry of Education, and 519 to the Ministry of Labor and Social Security.

The NPC Standing Committee also classified suggestions on:

* enhancing basic pensions for workers retired from state-owned companies;

* appointing more judges and prosecutors to grassroots courts and procuratorates;

* cracking down on misleading medicine advertisements;

* support for returned overseas Chinese in farming;

* long-term protection of forests;

* an ecological friendly model area along Xin'an River;

* water shortages in the central areas of Ningxia Hui Autonomous Region;

* improving sewage discharge systems in cities;

* pollution prevention in Baiyin city of Gansu Province;

* water and soil conservation in the Liujiaxia Reservoir area;

* ecological safety on the Tibet plateau;

* solution of salt tide in water supplies to Macao special administrative region.

The government departments have been instructed to try to respond to the suggestions before June 14. The deadline is September 14.