Mines managers' body oppose amendments in Act

DHANBAD: Amendments proposed in the Indian Mines Act of 1952 will be detrimental to the progress of mining activities in coal and non-coal sector, the Indian Mines Managers' Association has said.
The measures proposed in the Mines (Amendment) Bill 2011 pending in Parliament provides for heavy fines and long term imprisonment to the managers of the mines for violation of the safety norms in the mines.The bill is being studied by a select committee headed by Hemanand Biswal, former chief minister of Odisha.
The association has strongly protested against the amendments and felt the development of mines will be hit adversely by it. The Mines Act was last amended in 1983 to prohibit employment of minors in the mines. The mines ministry has claimed that many changes have taken place in technology, scale of operations, work practices in coal and non-coal sector operations since 1983. This has created a new safety and health risk scenario in mining operations.
There are 2,500 mines managers in the country, according to Vinod Prasad Sinha, the president of the association. He said the government or the Directorate General of Mines Safety did not consult the mines managers while pushing in amendments in the act. "The association is opposed to 11 amendments in the act and claimed these sections had suggested substantial increase in punishment and fines for the mining officers. In sections 65 to 74, there are amendments to increase the fines to 100 times and imprisonment to ten terms more than earlier provisions."
The mining officers of the Central Coalfileds Limited and the Bharat Coalfields Limited were recently convicted to jail terms for Chasnala and Bagidihi mines tragedy. Officers of the general manager rank were convicted and sentenced to jail terms for different periods.
The fines have been increased from Rs 500 to Rs five lakh for contravention of safety norms in some cases and jail terms have been increased from three months to five years. A new section 74 A recommends it shall be the liability of the mines managers or officers to satisfy the court that he had taken enough safety requirements.
Sinha said the recruitments in the coal mines had already declined as graduates of Indian School of Mines preferred to join other companies. "Mining graduates employed in the coal and non-coal sector are not getting suitable matches and if the fines and imprisonment becomes tougher, the freshers will not join the mining sector. They are getting better jobs after doing management courses," Sinha added. Suresh Singh, the manager of west Bhagatdih colliery of the BCCL, said the coal sector was facing scarcity of mining graduates and the new laws would make it difficult to find qualified mines managers.
D S Diwakar, the general manager of Tisco's Digwadih branch, also shared the feelings of Vinod Prasad Sinha and said the proposed amendments which were "detrimental to the growth of mining sector" should be withdrawn.