BEIJING, Mar 2: Maintaining law and order and keeping China's booming economy humming along for the next five years are at the lop of the national legislatures agenda when it convenes its annual' session, reports AP.

This year s ,10-day session of the National Peoples Congress is not expected to consider such weighty matters as building- the world's largest hydroelectric dam. which the congresa approved in 1992. Nor are dissidents likely to fire off reams of petitions to the legislature as they have tn past years. Nearly all of Chinn's active dissidents are behind bars.

Instead, this session of the NPC. which opens Tuesday, will deal with speh nuts and bolts issues as an economic Rian for 1996 to 2000 and ne-tuning criminal procedure law.

Fighting crime and corruption is likely to be prominent issue. Some delegates reportedly plan to move a motion demanding a full revelation of the nations biggest corruption scandal. .Involving former Beijing Communist Party boss Chen Xltong.

Chen was removed from the party’s powerful Politburo last year and forced to resign as Beijing party secretary. He is under criminal investigation, but few details have been revealed.

A Chinese newspaper poll of workers this week found that 35 per cent considered "cleaning up the government" the most urgent task lawmakers face

In the past month, the Chinese capital has been shocked by several violent crimes. Including the murder of an NPC vtce chairman by one of his bodyguards and a spectacular armed bank robbery by machine gun toting bandits who reportedly made

off with 1.1 million yuan (132.690 dollars).

The bank robbery bas not been reported in the official media, which reports only criminal cases that have been solved. But the whole city is a buzz tn a heightened state of fear.,

For a soctety that was virtually crime free for decades, such incidents are interpreted as a breakdown In the governments ability to rule.

In the poll, only one issue outranked "cleah government" . as the most urgent task before ‘ the legislature. Thirty six per cent of respondents said Ihe NPC must find a way to control inflation.

That Is Jusi one of ihe economic Issues the legislature's 2.974 delegates will have to deal with in China's next flve-year economic plan.

For several years. China's economy has been the world's fastest growing, but It is facing growing pains. Perennial • problems include the moribund state sector and a growing income gap between wealthy coastal provinces and the lagging .hinterland. .