Mianzhu: Chinese soldiers were working non-stop to dig a giant sluice to ease pressure on a swelling "quake lake', with plans to evacuate 100,000 people to avert a new disaster, state media said. China on Tuesday put the death toll from the earthquake that struck Sichuan province on May 12 at 67,183, with the figure certain to rise with 20,790 listed as missing. Nearly 362,000 people were injured. Soldiers and police trekked to the Tangjiashan lake carrying dynamite ready to blast the mud and rubble blocking the flow of water from a river and creating the largest of 35 quake lakes formed when landslides triggered by the massive tremor blocked rivers. Some 30,000 people living below the lake in and around Beichuan in the mountainous southwestern province have been evacuated as a precaution. In Mianyang, 150,000 people will have been evacuated by midnight on Tuesday, in line with a contingency plan should one third of the lake's 300 million cubic meters of water burst the dam, Xinhua news agency said. "It's better for them to complain about the trouble that the evacuation would bring than to shed tears after the possible danger,' Liu Ning, an official with the ministry of water resources, was quoted as saying. The lake had risen to 725.3 metres on Monday, only 26 metres below the lowest part of the barrier, he said. By Monday night, around 600 engineers and soldiers had gathered at the landslip and were taking turns to work through the night with bulldozers dropped by helicopters into the area. The troops were expected to finish the sluice by June 5 and would not discharge floodwater in the coming days even though the water level rose another 1.79 meters on Tuesday and authorities were preparing for the worst, Xinhua said. Mianyang, which includes Beichuan and where more than 16,000 people have died in the quake, replaced its mayor on Monday, but it was unclear if it was related to any dereliction of duty in relief work. The government warned on Monday that the situation remained "grim' and relief work arduous for the "most destructive' tremor recorded since before the birth of modern China in 1949. The massive relief effort, which involves food, tents and clothing for millions, as well as reconstructing housing and getting help to isolated villages, is expected to take up to three years. REUTERS China eases 1-child policy for quake-hit Parents Who Lost Children In The Temblor Will Be Exempted Beijing: China has made a major exception in its 20-year old one-child policy for parents in the earthquake areas, who have lost their only child. The announcement comes after strong protests by parents who bitterly complained about losing an entire generation. The central government has issued instructions to the local government offices in the quake-affected areas including those in Sichuan province to begin registering applications from parents seeking permission for a second child, according to the Chengdu Evening News. The new guidelines would bring much needed comfort to parents of thousands of school children who have been crushed to death under debris of fallen school buildings all over Sichuan. Over 12% of the total deaths of over 70,000 have been estimated to be school children. The present rules allow urban families to have one child and rural families two if the first is a girl. The decision had not been circulated by the Xinhua news agency, the official supplier of information from the central government, till late afternoon on Monday. The new guidelines will also allow parents who have not yet given birth to a baby to opt for adopting a child orphaned by the quake. This means newly married couples can have two children if one of them is an adopted one. The government has also announced a yearly stipend of $86 for couples over 50 years of age and who have lost their only child. Meanwhile, Chinese soldiers were working around the clock to dig a giant sluice to ease pressure on a swelling "quake lake', with plans to evacuate 100,000 people to avert a new disaster, state media said. LOOMING THREAT: The lake formed by a landslide triggered by the May 12 earthquake, near Beichuan county in Sichuan province A mother mourns her dead daughter during a memorial service at the ruins of a school in Dujiangyan