New Delhi | August 17, 2017: The balance between greater productivity and profit margins and the safety of workers is vital, President Ram Nath Kovind said here on Thursday, adding that “human safety and lives must always come first.”
Giving away the National Safety Awards (Mines) for 2013 and 2014 at a function at Vigyan Bhavan, the President said, “Safety practices of the award winning mines should be case studies for students of mining engineering and management.”
The winners of the safety awards in various categories included Tata Steel, Eastern Coalfields, ONGC, Hindalco, and Cairn India.
Urging the industry to move to a ‘culture of prevention’ from a ‘culture of reaction’, the President said India was endowed with impressive mineral wealth. “Today, the mineral sector contributes 2.6 per cent of our national GDP and provides direct employment to over one million people on a daily average basis, and helps the lives of their families,” he said, and asked mining companies to design policies to give back to workers, their families, to the local community and to society at large.
Terming minerals and natural resources critical for India’s economic development, Kovind said extraction and management of minerals need to be integrated into the country’s overall strategy for nation-building.
“We are still some distance away from our goal of zero harm. In fact, safety issues and complexities have compounded with the increased scale of mining operations and their extension to adverse geo-mining conditions,” he said.
(Source: http://www.thehindubusinessline.com/)