(China Daily)
Updated: 2008-01-30 07:18

Close to 1 million police have been deployed to control traffic on China's snow-covered highways, the Public Security Ministry said yesterday.

The officers have been working round the clock on surveillance and control operations, Ministry of Public Security spokesman Wu Heping said in Beijing yesterday.

Valuable vegetables Vegetable sellers offload cabbages from a truck at a distribution center in Shenyang, Liaoning province, on Monday. The local government has offered dealers subsidies of up to 150 yuan per ton to bring more vegetables into the city, which is facing shortages due to the bad weather. Huang Jinkun

The snow, the heaviest for decades in many places, has hit the eastern, central and southern regions since Jan 10, causing deaths, power blackouts, highway closures and crop destruction.

"The ministry has been exchanging information on weather and traffic with meteorological administrations around the country to keep traffic order," Wu said.

Police have also stepped up the frequency of patrols and collaborated with transport departments to de-ice roads.

About 11,000 vehicles were backed up on highways in Anhui province, where half of all the state and provincial highways have been crippled by heavy snow.

More than 8,000 traffic police officers were dispatched yesterday to maintain order on a 40-km stretch of congested highway in the province.

In Hunan province, the public security bureau has sent daily warnings to more than 1 million drivers, providing information on road conditions around the clock.

The central government has allocated 4.6 million yuan ($639,000) to authorities in Guizhou, Anhui, Hunan, Henan, Hubei, Jiangxi and Guangdong provinces to subsidize police operations.

The People's Liberation Army (PLA) has also ordered its troops to go all out to help those battling the heavy snow in the southern part of the country.

Its department of general staff and general political department issued a joint statement on Monday, ordering troops in the affected areas to help local governments.

The troops were ordered to give whatever assistance local governments required.

So far, more than 150,000 PLA troops and Chinese People's Armed Police personnel and about 300,000 paramilitary troops have joined the campaign to battle the snow.

Xinhua

(China Daily 01/30/2008 page3)