BEIJING, April 14 -- China dealt with 73,160 environmental violation cases in 2014, a year on year increase of 10 percent, according to the Ministry of Environmental Protection.

Fines imposed on violators implicated in these cases totaled more than 3.16 billion yuan (510 million U.S. dollars), up 34.4 percent from 2013, a ministry statement revealed on Tuesday.

Sentencing in 81 percent of these cases has been passed.

Guangdong in south China and Zhejiang in the east, both economically advanced coastal provinces, reported more than 10,000 administrative cases each.

While vowing to publicize all administrative punishments for the scrutiny of disciplinary and judicial organs as well as the public. The ministry warned that any regions that were late declaring their violation cases or their law enforcement was proven to be ineffective would face questioning and possibly punishment.

"The covering up of environmental crimes and severe dereliction of duty will be passed on to the Supreme People's Procuratorate," the statement said.