A total of 487 officials from Hebei Province in north China have been punished for malpractice related to pollution control, the Ministry of Environmental Protection (MEP) announced.

Hebei's Communist Party leadership and provincial government meted out the punishments upon investigation into clues found by environment protection inspectors dispatched by central authorities.

They have been regulated according to the Party and governmental discipline. Ten were removed from posts and five transferred to judicial departments.

For example, officials with the Handan Iron and Steel Group Co., Ltd. were held accountable for failing to shut down a blast furnace that had been the subject of public ire because of its smoke and dust emissions.

In another case, officials with the provincial department of industry and information technology and the department of environmental protection were reprimanded, warned or publicly criticized for negligence of duties by allowing steel firms keeping their pollutive sintering machines that should have been phased out. Li Bao, deputy head of the provincial department of environment protection, is now under judicial investigation for criminal liability.

(Xinhua News Agency November 8, 2016)