Safety, minimum wages at coal mines of utmost importance: Goyal

The government will be mindful of minimum wages provisioning of health services and safety yardsticks at coal mines in the upcoming bidding process, coal minister Piyush Goyal said today.
"Ensuring safety at work place, proper health facilities to coal mine workers and also ensuring minimum wages to the workers has to be given due importance to instill safety- culture in all our coal mines, particularly in view of the future mechanization of our operations," Goyal was quoted as saying in a official statement.
"The yardstick of safety, provisioning of health services and minimum wages will be kept in mind during the forthcoming bidding process," the minister said at the meeting of the Standing Committee on Safety in Coal mines here.

The minister also advised the officials to ensure that due help is provided to the dependents of victims of coal mine tragedies to file their claims promptly.
Goyal stressed that the management should compassionately and proactively ensure disbursal of the claims due.
It was noted that the tool of close monitoring of safety parameters across all coal mines as discussed in the last emergency review meeting held in January last year following Rajmahal mishap is worth emulation by other companies.