China blows whistle against erring industries:
[World News]: New York, Feb 7 : China is blowing whistle against industrial tigers, who have emerged "untouchable" in the country, for continously flouting environmental regulations.
Last month, China's State Environmental Protection Administration (SEPA) ordered 30 major construction projects, most of them massive power plants scattered around the country, to shut down because they had not conducted required impact studies.
"It's astounding, because in the past, regulatory bodies used to 'swat at flies but not at tigers'," a 'Newsweek' report quoted Deputy Director of the Political Science Institute at China's Academy of Social Sciences, Fang Ning as saying.
For growth sake, China had until now shut its eyes against violations. "Developers ran roughshod over environmental regulators, despite new laws giving the latter increased authority and power plants, in particular, have been untouchable," the report said.
"But now things are changing and the turnaround is, by Chinese standards, amazingly swift." Twenty-two quickly complied, paying fines of USD 24,000 each. But the rest, including three plants being built by the state-run China Three Gorges Corp., ignored the directive.
A bureaucratic turf battle raged until last week, when the company suspended work and vowed to comply, it said.
"Since President Hu Jintao and Prime Minister Wen Jiabao took over the reins of government in 2003, they have sought to bolster their popular support by appearing to tackle such quality-of-life problems," the report said. PTI
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