Pollution inspector expelled

An air pollution control inspector has been expelled from the Communist Party of China and dismissed from public office for taking bribes and helping conceal violations by companies, the top environmental authority announced on Friday.

When Li Jianzhu, who worked with the environmental department of Xinji, Hebei province, was leading an inspection team in the Henan provincial capital of Zhengzhou on Jan 17, his team found environmental violations of six local companies in Zhengdong new district.

The 40-year-old, however, alerted or deleted four of the violations that had been included into a report to be submitted to the top environmental authority after local official Wang Songbo approached him and gave him 10,000 yuan ($1,570), according to a release from the Ministry of Ecology and Environment.