Illegal land cases costly for officials

The CPC Central Commission for Disciplinary Inspection and the Ministry of Supervision said Wednesday they handled 1,480 cases linked to illegal forced demolition and land expropriation, and 3,733 officials have been punished for wrongdoings relating to mismanagement of land recourses since the 17th Party Congress in 2007, the Xinhua News Agency reported.

Last year 57 people were punished by the law or given demerits in accordance with the Party and administrative rules in follow-up investigations conducted by the ministry into 11 illegal forced demolition cases.

The investigation results were reported nationwide after 31 people were tried.

The number of officials held accountable for wrongdoings directly related to land expropriation cases has reached 509 since 2007.

Between 2007 and 2011, 32 environment-related cases were directly handled by the ministry and the Ministry of Environmental Protection, resulting in 130 officials being given demerits for not following Party and administrative rules.

Local authorities tackled around 62,000 cases involving the breaking of environmental protection regulations during the period, with 4,854 companies shut down.

The commission and the ministry also said that since the previous Party congress, local authorities have taken seriously the public's benefits and interests in forced demolition and land expropriation, housing, social security, and food and drug safety.