This is Special English. I&`&m Mark Griffiths in Beijing. Here is the news.
Work to remove air quality monitoring stations from local government control is almost complete. The move came after officials in northern China were accused of tampering with pollution data.
The Ministry of Environmental Protection said the plan is to separate all 1,500 monitoring stations nationwide from provincial, city and county bureaus and place them under the operation of companies that will report directly to the central government.
Preparation work to become independent has been completed at 92 percent of stations nationwide, while all stations in 18 areas, including Beijing, have transferred to third-party companies.
The independent monitoring network will be expanded to cover water and soil by 2018; and China plans to build a comprehensive environmental monitoring and information sharing network by 2020.
The network is intended to prevent inference from local authorities and guarantee authentic data.
Three senior environmental protection officials in Xi&`&an in Shaanxi province have been detained on suspicion of altering monitoring data.
The officials are accused of having a duplicate key made without authorization so they could gain access to air quality monitoring equipment. They are accused of masking the equipment with cotton yarn to filter the air and lower pollution data to avoid punitive actions.
This is Special English.
Departments and ministries under the State Council, China&`&s cabinet, have responded to a series of public concerns on issues including agricultural modernization and civil service examinations.
The State Council recently issued a five-year plan for strategic agricultural modernization for the period spanning 2016 to 2020. The plan has clearly defined the importance of agricultural modernization.
According to Minister of Agriculture Han Changfu, the sector has a solid basis for modernization and is entering a development stage.
According to the plan, by 2020, food security will be effectively guaranteed and rural residents&`& livelihoodS will be improved.
Civil service examination applications for central government organizations, and subordinate agencies, will be stopped in Oct next year.
Although civil service posts are popular, there are still some posts that only a few, or even no, candidates apply for.
The State Administration of Civil Service has recently issued an announcement to the public, which summarizes the posts attracting few, or no qualified, candidates.
The administration reminds applicants to rationally choose posts.
It also reminds applicants to avoid peak times of application, often, just days before the deadline, in order to boost their chances of acceptance.
You&`&re listening to Special English. I&`&m Mark Griffiths in Beijing.
Beijing&`&s transport authority has said that the city will limit the number of cars on the road to 6 million by 2020, as part of efforts to reduce traffic congestion.
According to Beijing Municipal Commission of Transport, the number of new license plates available to registered drivers, currently handled through a monthly lottery, will be reduced from the current 150,000 a year to 100,000 in 2018.
The total number of cars on the road in Beijing was 5 million at the end of last year.
The city has seen car numbers grow by 300 percent from 1998 to 2013, with many major roads plagued by severe congestion.
Since 2004, the city has adopted a set of measures to solve the problem, including introducing a plate lottery, encouraging the use of public transport, and using traffic control based on license plate numbers.
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