China `punishes` 160,000 for indiscipline

Beijing: Over 160,000 people in China were "punished" by the government for disciplinary violations in 2012, official figures said Wednesday. Disciplinary inspection organs last year launched investigations into more than 155,000 cases based on tip-offs from the public, Xinhua reported. A total of 160,718 people were punished after the probe. The investigations also led to the recovery of 7.83 billion yuan ($1.2 billion) from the people punished.

The figures were released by the Central Commission for Discipline Inspection under the Communist Party of China, and the ministry of supervision. There were 427 cases of illegal land expropriation, and 437 people were held accountable. The year also saw probes into 11,000 food safety cases and around 5,000 medication safety cases. There were 340 cases of violations in low-income housing projects, in which 382 people were held. IANS