A former mayor was Wednesday removed from his post as deputy to the National People's Congress, the top legislature, for his role in last year's adulterated milk scandal.

Ji Chuntang, former mayor of Shijiazhuang, capital of the northern province of Hebei, covered up the scandal and failed to take appropriate action, the Hebei provincial legislature said.

Ji resigned from the post of mayor last September when the scandal came to light. He then was stripped of the post of deputy secretary of the Shijiazhuang City Committee of the Communist Party of China.

Milk powder produced by Sanlu Group, which was based in Shijiazhuang, was found to have been adulterated with the industrial chemical melamine. It caused the deaths of at least six children and sickened more than 300,000 others.

(Xinhua News Agency May 28, 2009)