An outspoken Chinese lawmaker on Friday defended his suggestion that the country's earthquake administrations should disband due to their growing budgets and failed forecasts.

The proposal has prompted controversy in the quake-vulnerable country after Zhu Lieyu, a senior lawyer and deputy to the country's top legislature, submitted it to China's parliamentary session, which opened this week.

Advocates said the suggestion is reasonable, while critics called it "insane," saying that earthquakes are always hard to predict and the work of the administrations involves far more than quake prediction.

"It shocked me when I found that only a small portion of the growing budgets of many provincial earthquake administrations is devoted to earthquake prediction," said Zhu.

"After talking to many retirees who used to work with these administrations, I found that the idea of disbanding the earthquake agencies is not insane at all," he added.

China's seismic authorities have come under fire after the country's earthquake administrations failed to offer any predictions or warnings ahead of several major earthquakes in recent years.

Official statistics showed that budgets for China's Earthquake Administration soared from 2.4 billion yuan (about 390 million U.S. dollars) in 2010 to over 4 billion yuan in 2013.

According to figures from the administration's website, a total of 555 million yuan was slated last year for seismic monitoring, prediction and disaster prevention, merely 13 percent of the total budget.

The remaining funds were designated for items ranging from earthquake technology development to education and disaster relief.

"What is the use of the earthquake administration? Disaster relief should be the work of civil administration," Zhu told media.

"By submitting the suggestion, I want to make more people think," he said. "Is it reasonable for institutes and departments like them to take up so much money?"

Zhu said he considers the media attention over his suggestion a good thing, because as long as the issue is hotly debated, it may push reform and lead to changes.

The outspoken lawmaker's motions and suggestions to the country's top legislative body have ranged from "death sentence for those who bulldoze ancient tombs" to "nationwide free train travels during four major national holidays" over the years.

Zhu said that some motions and suggestions which were at first deemed unreasonable had later become laws and regulations with nationwide support.

"The case of Sun Zhigang is a typical one," he said.

In 2003, seven members of the Guangdong Provincial Committee of the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference urged an end to the entrenched "reeducation through labor" system in the province after Sun, a 27-year-old college graduate working away from his home in Guangdong, was put into custody for not carrying his temporary residence permit and was later beaten to death.

Their controversial proposal became reality last year when the Standing Committee of the National People's Congress passed a resolution to abolish the system.

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