A total of 41 coal mine managers and government officials from
central China's Henan Province have either been sacked or
demoted following two coal mine accidents that claimed 26 lives
early this year, the provincial bureau of coal mine safety said on
Monday.
Su Renlu, executive of Malingshan Coal Company, and Zhang
Jianhai, executive of Daliushan Coal Company, were dismissed from
their posts, according to a notice from the State Administration of
Coal Mine Safety.
Malingshan Coal Company was fined 15 million yuan (US$1.92
million), while the Daliushan Coal Company was fined 17.3 million
yuan (US$2.21 million), according to the notice.
These are reportedly the highest fines ever on local coal mine
companies.
It said criminal proceedings would be launched against the two
executives, among dozens of other managers and work safety
staff.
A gas explosion on February 10 killed 15 miners at Malingshan
Coal Company, a subsidiary of the Zhengzhou Coal Group. The
company, with an annual production capacity of 300,000 tons, had no
work safety and mining certificates.
Another 11 miners died in a gas explosion on April 26 at a coal
pit run by Daliushan Coal Company in Jiaxian County.
Around 10 local government officials including the deputy head
of the county were demoted or given warnings for loose work safety
supervision.
But the notice did not specify how they were involved.
China has defined specific new punishments for government
officials to tackle production safety problems.
Government officials will face warnings, demotions, dismissal
and prosecution for production safety transgressions, according to
rules issued in November.
The interim rules, jointly issued by China's State
Administration of Work Safety (SAWS) and the Ministry of
Supervision, define 25 types of punishable acts by government
officials and 18 types by executives of state-owned businesses,
ranging from approving projects that do not meet safety
requirements, failure to address unsafe production activities and
covering up production accidents, to executives allowing their
businesses to continue to operate after their licenses have been
revoked or they have been ordered to stop production.
(Xinhua News Agency December 26, 2006)