A growing number of local governments are looking for ways to improve the productivity of civil servants who waste time playing games and chatting online instead of doing their jobs.

Wuhan, the capital of Central China's Hubei province, is among them and has set up a hotline for residents to report slackers and inefficiency. In the first three days, the hotlines received more than 600 reports from residents, Xinhuanet.com reported.

According to a circular issued earlier this month, the city government has singled out 10 types of behavior it would like to crack down on, including evasion of duties, lack of discipline and inefficiency.

Any official or government employee found kicking back when there is work to be done could face punishments including such serious sanctions as demotion or dismissal, the circular said.

The anti-slacker campaign aims to boost efficiency and cut down on bureaucracy and comes at a time when the city is pushing to be known as a regional economic center, the circular noted.

Wuhan has also set up a special office that will carry out undercover investigations of local government departments.

On April 12, members of the undercover team secretly visited 14 government organizations and discovered 29 violations, including people playing online games, workers leaving off early and employees leaving their desks to chat or carry out personal errands.

Wuhan is not alone in pushing to get more out of its workforce. Governments looking after Hunan province and the Xinjiang Uygur autonomous region have also launched similar crackdowns against inefficiency.

Hunan provincial government issued a circular recently warning that civil servants will be seriously punished if they are found neglecting or not handling issues in a timely manner.

In Xinjiang, Zhang Chunxian, Party chief of the autonomous region, said recently that slackness and laziness among government workers must be ended.