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Guangdong's land regulator has sought provincial government approval to implement a raft of land requisition rules introducing uniform compensation standards.

The provincial Department of Land and Resources told the Nanfang Daily party newspaper that under the new rules, funds would be paid directly to affected farmers using a "real-name compensation scheme."

"Guangdong will try out a real-name payment mechanism, under which most of the land and crop compensation fees, and migration subsidies will be directly paid to farmers in person to avoid capital hold-outs in multi-layered allocation," the department said.

In the past, compensation has been filtered to recipients through various layers of government. Guangdong party chief Zhang Dejiang criticized that approach in December, saying it has sparked disputes and bred suspicions of corruption.

The new rules would also require projects developers to pay money into designated compensation accounts before seeking provincial approval to requisition land.

"The project developer should also obtain verification documents from farmers organizations after paying the funds to farmers," the department said.

The rules also spell out the need for public hearings to discuss compensation standards with farmers unless the farmers opt out, the department said, adding: "If the farmers give up their hearing, a verifying document should be signed by no less than two-thirds of the farmers representatives."

It did not disclose any detailed compensation standards.

The new rules follow the party chief's announcement in December of three "taboos" in land requisition to avoid disputes.

Zhang said projects could not start without completed documentation and construction could no go ahead without a democratic consensus on compensation from farmers. He also said work could not begin until farmers had between paid compensation in full.

Editor: Yan