Legislator resigns after road cave-in

A legislator from East China's Jiangsu province resigned on Saturday after illegal construction of a basement under his Beijing courtyard caused a street surface to collapse in Xicheng district.

Li Baojun, who was a member of the Xuzhou People's Congress, submitted his resignation to the local legislature's standing committee on Saturday morning. The committee voted to approve Li's resignation in the afternoon.

Li, president of Haiying Group, a corporation in Jiangsu that focuses on auto parts production, apologized to his Beijing neighbors in an open statement on Friday, promising to compensate for all losses from the incident.

He also claimed that his brother-in-law, who had lived in the courtyard, was responsible for the construction.

The collapse occurred early on the morning on Jan 24 when five workers were attempting to dig the basement under the courtyard on Deshengmennei Street.

According to the Beijing Information Office, the cave-in resulted in a pit 15 meters long, 5 meters wide and 10 meters deep.

Traffic on the street was disrupted and subsidence was caused to at least four other rooms in properties owned by people north of the site. No deaths or injuries were reported.

Since the collapse, the incident has been hotly debated on the Internet, with netizens criticizing Li's breach of law as a legislator.

Tang Jinchao, Li's representative and general manager of Haiying Group, said that Li paid 3.8 million yuan ($608,050) to a construction company in Shandong province.

Li bought the 190-square-meter courtyard, which includes five rooms, in April 2010. Since two of the rooms are under a historical and cultural protection program, any restoration or reconstruction work has to be approved by district authorities.

The Beijing Planning Commission said on Wednesday that Li had applied to renovate the courtyard.

But the permit that the commission granted only allowed him to renovate the courtyard, not to dig a basement, it said.

General manager Tang said Li had told the construction company to handle all matters relating to the basement construction, including obtaining permission from government departments.

Li Yunzhi, who lives across the street from the courtyard, said residents had long complained to government departments about illegal construction work at the site, but had received no reply.

Previous media reports said that the city had warned Li and ordered him to stop work after residents complained in July.

The hole had been filled in by Wednesday, traffic flow had returned to normal and the site was under guard.