More officials were punished over outbreaks of lead poisoning in Anhui that caused more than 200 children to fall ill, but it did little to ease parents' anger over local handling of the scandal.
Villagers in Gaohe town, Huaining county, said the lenient punishment of 10 county-level officials would barely make a difference to either their livelihoods, already disrupted by toxic metal pollution, or their contaminated environment.
Many parents vowed to take their ill children to hospitals outside Anhui for check-ups after state and provincial health authorities claimed children poisoned by lead leaks were cured within days without medical treatment.
County environmental chief Zhao Yiping, who was suspended last week, was sacked because of the scandal, according to China News Service. Citing the Anqing city government, which administers Huaining, the report said six officials were given either demerits or warnings, including county chief Liu Feiyue , deputy county chief Cao Ziquan and a deputy health chief who allegedly failed to respond promptly to the poisoning.
Wang Limin , chief engineer of the county's environmental watchdog, was also handed over to judicial authorities for alleged dereliction of duty. Provincial authorities found the watchdog allowed the factory to operate illegally since 2007 just across the street from the victims' neighbourhood. But officials at the agency said they were made scapegoats because the factory was approved by all leading county officials.
In fact, the watchdog officials said, they tried unsuccessfully to close the factory several times at the request of locals, based on a national rule that battery plants cannot be within 500 metres of a residential area.