Beijing, September 24:

China’s most populous province Henan has ordered more than 470 township governments to merge with each other to reduce the number of local governments to 200, state media said today. Local government officials have a habit of hiring relatives and friends, or creating jobs for the sake of returning favours. Official statistics show that the 2,100 township governments in the province which is home to about 97 million people, had hired 302,300 employees by the end of last year, 143,900 more than the number allowed, the Xinhua news agency said.

To cut the fat, authorities in Henan have ordered the 470 towns to merge their administrations.