In fight against pollution, Chi expands power of green teams

Beijing, May 16: Stepping up its fight against pollution and environmental degradation, Chi has empowered its central green teams to inspect all provinces in the country. This is a major step because till now, only the Central Commission for Discipline Inspection, Chi’s top anti-corruption body, had the power to send its probe teams to any of the country’s 33 provinces. The environmental protection ministry will be Chi’s second tiol authority empowered to send inspection teams and hold discussions with provincial leaders, a newspaper reported. “We need to set up a fundamental system to supervise environmental protection. But the central government inspection will help spur local authorities to devote more efforts to environmental protection,” Liu Changgen, head of the tiol Environmental Protection Inspection Office, was quoted as saying. Liu said the decision was taken after a successful pilot project in Hebei, which accounts for 25 percent of Chi’s steel production and is among the top five most polluted provinces in the country. Liu said the environment ministry has selected 120 people for this job and from them teams would be sent randomly to the targeted areas. Such inspections will cover all provinces every two years. Unbridled growth of industries has contributed to Chi’s economic rise, but it also led to pollution and environmental degradation. Beijing is one of the world’s most polluted cities. (IANS)