More than 5,600 environmental protection violation cases were filed in two Chinese provinces last year, local authorities disclosed Wednesday.
Fines totaling 420 million yuan (60.6 million U.S. dollars), involving 4,242 cases, were issued from January to November last year in the central province of Henan.
A total of 2,062 people and 2,505 companies were punished for dereliction of duty, illegal discharge of pollutants and faking data during the same period.
In neighboring Hebei Province, 1,384 environmental cases were wrapped in 2016, up 64.96 percent year on year. About 3,300 companies had been investigated and 1,853 people detained, flagged for investigation or charged for misconduct linked with pollution.
Henan and Hebei, home to a large number of power plants, as well as coal and steel companies, are among the regions worse hit by smog in China.
To tackle air pollution, the two have vowed to cut capacity and eliminate outdated facilities.
In the first 11 months of 2016, Henan removed over 430,000 high-polluting vehicles from its roads and ordered 12,300 construction sites to reduce dust, a major source of smog.
Hebei slashed 16.24 million tonnes of steel capacity, 17.61 million tonnes of iron, and 21.89 million weight cases of glass in 2016. It has pledged to cut another 32 million tonnes of iron and steel capacity this year.
The average PM2.5 density dropped 9.1 percent in 2016 in Hebei and 10.7 percent in the first 11 months of 2016 in Henan.
