Coal news and updates

Govt charts safety roadmap for coal mine workers

April 30: The Ministry of Coal has set out a roadmap for improvement in safety and occupational health standards of coal mine workers in India with the aim of achieving “zero harm” to workers, an official communique has informed.

The decision was taken at a recent meeting of the Standing Committee on Safety in Coal Mines, chaired by Coal Minister Piyush Goyal.

However, the task becomes onerous in view of the rapid expansion of the Indian coal sector for meeting it growing energy demands, adoption of state-of-art-technology and collaborative efforts of the management and trade unions to achieve these production targets.

However, a series of milestones have been drawn up and which are expected to be followed by the coal producing companies.

Some of the milestones are thus:

Coal companies have been advised that a realistic safety budget both under capital and revenue heads should be finalised for financial year 2015-16, after comprehensive assessment of the procurement of vital safety items so that the allocated budget can be fully utilised.

All existing water sprinklers should be replaced with mist-type water sprinkling system within a year.

CMDs of all coal companies have been made responsible for ensuring the supply of sufficient numbers of mining shoes of proven quality to all employees in the coal sector.

Professionalism should be brought into the healthcare system of all coal companies so that all hospital and dispensaries of coal companies could cater to the needs of both departmental and contractual workers.