BEIJING, Dec. 11 -- The rescue operations at a coal mine accident have ended with 105 miners dead.
The State Council has organized an investigation team to probe into what caused the disaster in the city of Linfen, North China's Shanxi Province. Preliminary investigations show the illegal mining of an unauthorized seam, and the number of miners who had been sent down the shaft far exceeded its capacity.
This mine was found to have long disregarded the rules to steal State coal, and did not have a roster of miners employed to check the number of miners missing after the accident.
How does such a coal mine get all the necessary licenses for production? How did it pass the three safety inspections the local government organized last month?
In response to this disaster, the Shanxi governor promised to set up hotlines for people to report illegal coal mines and rewards as high as 100,000 yuan (13,500 U.S. dollars) for tip-offs.
We appreciate the action this governor has taken to solving the coal mining problems in his province, and we believe that the reporting scheme will constitute a deterrence to the existence of illegal coal mines.
But at the same time we have reason to question how governments at various levels supervise these mines.
The sad fact that such a mine with serious safety problems could pass three consecutive local government safety inspections in a month is enough to tell us how ineffective the safety inspections were.
What if these inspections were just a formality without substance? What if the inspectors were bribed by the mine owners to turn a blind eye to the safety hazards?
We can well imagine what would happen if reports about mine problems were handled by such officials.
So a thorough probe must find out the real culprits for the death of so many miners. A real substantial safety inspection and management system must be established to guarantee that tip-offs about problematic mines will be dealt with to the letter and safety hazards removed.
(Source: China Daily)
