Chongqing Fights Crimes from Three Gorges ResettlementLocal authorities in Chongqing are launching a three-month campaign to deal with officials who have illegally used their influence to profit from the resettlement of the multi-billion yuan Three Gorges Dam Project.The move is aimed at safeguarding the resettlement funds and the quality of the relocation work, according to local prosecutors in charge of the matter. This southwestern municipality is home to 80 percent of the more than one million people to be move due to the mammoth water project being built on the Yangtze River, the longest river in China. Nearly 100,000 of the people affected have been relocated by local government. In recent years, a series of crimes such as embezzlement and misuse of huge amounts of resettlement funds have been exposed, involving a large number of local officials. So far 97 of the accused officials have been convicted and punished. Among them are Huang Faxiang, director of the land resources administration of Fengdu County, who embezzled 15.56 million yuan from land sales, and Wang Sumei, an accountant at the relocation bureau of Wanzhou District who used over one million yuan of resettlement funds for gambling. |
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