Directorate General of Mines Safety looks to bring down accident count
Kolkata: Concerned over the vulnerabilities of contractual workers in mines and falling standards of supervision in maintaining the highest safety standards, the Directorate General of Mines Safety (DGMS) is working on a strategy, according to Sanjibon Ray, Deputy Director General, Directorate General of Mines Safety.
"This is part of an ambitious plan to augment mining production, as well as reduce accidents, including fatalities. Currently, we are in the process of preparing a set of recommendations as a strategy to improve the occupational safety and health (OHS) of contractual workers. The recommendations will be placed during the 12th National Safety Conference in Mines, scheduled for November. We are having talks with all stakeholders before we finalise the recommendations," Ray said at a Session on Mines Safety on the second day of the CII Safety Symposium and Exposition organised by CII on Thursday.
It may be mentioned that about 100,000 contractual workers are engaged in mining activities.
"The prime areas of concern include lack of adequate training and safety awareness of the contractual workforce – something which is one of the contributory factors in creating unsafe and accident-prone situations in mines," he said, adding that the living condition of the contractual workforce in the mining sites needs vast improvement, including judicious space management while deploying transportation machinery in mining sites.
"The prime factor leading to accidents in mines is fatigue and poor living condition. They don't get proper drinking water, hygienic food and medical facilities," Ray said, adding that the DGMS will recommend defined codes to safeguard precious human lives.
"Accident statistics reveal that the percentage of involvement of contractual workers in fatal accidents is increasing. Data reveals that fatality rate is more in case of contractual workers than the regular employees. The rate of accidents in case of contractual workers was 2.47 times more than regular workers during the period between 2010-2016," he said.
