Chongqing Mayor Huang Qifan reiterated on Wednesday that the municipality's reform on the hukou system does not force rural residents to give up farmland in exchange for an urban residency and the benefits that come with it.

He said at a press conference that rural residents are given a choice of either surrendering the land or keeping it for a few years before making a final decision.

Under current policies, if rural residents find they cannot adapt to urban life within three to five years, the government will return the land to them.

"Giving up farmland is not the premise for gaining the urban hukou. The hukou reform does not include any terms about land," he said.

He also confirmed that at least nine schools have been forcing students from rural areas to drop their rural status by threatening to cancel their scholarships.

Huaxi Metropolitan News reported on Monday that some college students in Chongqing were suffering from the colleges' decision to stop giving scholarships because they refused to transfer their residency status from rural to urban.

A student surnamed Cheng told China Daily that many of his classmates from the countryside had lost their scholarships because they would not drop their rural status.

"Some of them are from needy families and they are facing a dilemma," he said.

Huang said that the colleges' unfair behavior will be corrected, and heads of colleges who are found to force students to give up rural hukou in the future will face severe punishment.

Chongqing has been promoting the hukou reform since August, encouraging rural residents to give up their rural identity to become an urban resident.

The reform will improve farmers-turned-workers' living conditions in the city, boost domestic demands, increase the average farmland per capita and increase farmers' income, Huang Qifan said.

With a population of 32 million, 80 percent of whom are rural residents, the municipality plans to have 10 million rural residents transfer to urban residents.

Many rural residents in China are reluctant to go to cities, fearing that they might not be able to secure a job in the city, given their limited skills, and that they cannot afford the high cost of housing in cities.

An investigation by the household registry administration of Zhejiang province found that, as a rich region in East China, the number of people who transfer their rural households to urban hukou has decreased from 577,000 in 2004 to 189,000 in 2009.