The Hindu : Tamil Nadu News : Human error major cause for mine accidents: Director-General

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Wednesday, Sep 12, 2007
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Tamil Nadu

Tamil Nadu

Human error major cause for mine accidents: Director-General

Special Correspondent

Pat for the efforts put in by the employees for the growth of NLC

NEYVELI: Human error is the cause of 99 per cent of the accidents in mines. Though it is ideal to aim at achieving zero accident potential, unfortunately none of the countries in the world except Australia has achieved it, according to M.M.Sharma, Director-General of Mines Safety.

Mr. Sharma was delivering the valedictory address at the Safety Week celebrations jointly organised by the Neyveli Lignite Corporation and the Tamil Nadu and Kerala Mines Safety Association here on Sunday.

He appreciated the efforts put in by the employees for the growth of NLC. However, last year there were six fatal accidents in NLC and this year one. There should not be any slackness in implementing the safety programmes.

Safety committee

Mr. Sharma called upon the NLC management to constitute a core safety committee to analyse the cause of accidents and suggest remedial measures. S.J.Sibal, Deputy Director General of Mines Safety, Southern Zone (Hyderabad), said mining was an extremely hazardous profession.

It was pertinent to note that of the four lakh tonnes of industrial explosives produced annually in the country 60,000 tonnes were utilised in civil works and the rest in the mines.

Owing to the consistent efforts made by the mines, the death rate that stood at two per 1,000 a few years ago had now come down to 0.2-0.3 per 1,000. Mr. Sibal appreciated the safety measures being taken by the NLC management.

B.P.Ahuja, Director of Mines Safety, Chennai region, said the management should bring the contract labourers also under the ambit of the occupational health services.

S.Jayaraman, Chairman-cum-Managing Director, said the NLC was adopting uniform safety standards for the regular employees and the contract labourers. Besides updating technology and imparting training, the NLC was also carrying on safety propaganda.

Money would not be a constraint for implementing the safety programmes and the management might even consider giving cash awards to the units that were adopting the best safety practices, Mr. Jayaraman added.

A.R.Ansari, Director (Planning and Projects), said the NLC was setting aside Rs 4 crore annually to meet the safety requirements. K.S.Anandan, Director (Mines), said after automation the accident rate had come down significantly.

S.Gopinath, chairman of the Tamil Nadu and Kerala Mines Safety Association, said the association would set up one more vocational training centre at Salem (first one is located at Tiruchi).

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