KARACHI: National Labour Council (NLC) and Pakistan Institute of Labour Education and Research (PILER) have expressed grief and sorrow over loss of lives of 15 mine workers in a coal mine in Balochistan and demanded the government to cancel leases of all coal mines as their allottees have failed to provide occupational safety and health facilities to workers.
In a statement issued here Wednesday, Karamat Ali, Secretary of NCL said in recent months a lot of workers have lost their lives in coal mines because of non-availability of safety and rescue measures at the sites.
At least 13 miners died when they were trapped in a coal mine in Sanjdi area near Quetta that caved in following a gas explosion on Sunday. During the rescue operation, five volunteers went into the mine for help, two of them also died on Monday due to the accumulation of poisonous methane gas inside the mine. Three volunteers were also shifted to Quetta Civil Hospital in critical condition.
Karamat Ali has urged the Pakistan Mineral Development Corporation (PMDC) to take over all mines in Balochistan as the current mine lease-operators have done nothing for saving the lives of poor workers, who are mostly from Swat and other mountainous areas, where employment opportunities do not exist.
The provincial labor department has also failed to ensure the provision of rescue services and due to poor measures lives of workers are constantly under threats.
Relevant pieces published earlier:
i) Following the gas blast in a coal mine, rescuers had so far managed to bring two bodies out of the coal pit. (Published on 13th August 2018)
It is pertinent to mention here that, like in all the industries of the country, hardly any measures are taken for the safety of miners. Hence, the coalpit gobbles up a couple of hundred laborers annually. (Published on 12th August 2018)
iii) Following the collapse of two coal mines due to the gas explosion this afternoon at least 23 workers died while five got trapped beneath the debris here some 45 km from Quetta. So far twelve bodies have been taken out of the mines while rescuers are endeavoring to recover the bodies and take the survivors out safely. ii) Ministry of Planning and Development has started a new initiative – Cluster Development Based Mineral Transformation Plan – to improve productivity in mines and mineral sector and enhance exports. The initiative, costing Rs62.21 million has been launched under Vision-2025 and would increase value addition and create jobs in the mineral sector. (5th May 2018)
Nature has bestowed Pakistan with enormous and diversified world-class mineral resources, coal, copper, gold, building stones, industrial raw materials, gemstones, etc.
Both the public and private sectors are working to exploration and development. As per Annual Development Plan (ADP) 2018-19, the mines & mineral contribution towards GDP growth was 0.09 percent in 2017-18 while Vision 2025 and 12th Five Year Plan envisage fundamental improvements for mineral sector.
Moreover, Geological Survey of Pakistan (GSP) has designed a number of annual field program and projects likely minerals investigation, geological mapping, geophysical exploration, exploration and evaluation of coal, geochemical exploration of precious metals, geo-environmental & groundwater studies, exploration of iron ore, geohazard assessment & geotechnical projects, geochemical analysis and medical geology for next year.
An area of about 12800 sq. km is planned to be geologically mapped in different parts of the country. Around 200 samples will be taken in this time period while conducting this survey and geochemical analysis will be carried out.
Even though the operational funds provided in the regular budget are short to meet the project expenses, GSP aims to achieve technical targets in the upcoming financial year within the available resources.
The efforts will be concentrated towards mineral exploration and Geological mapping projects including iron ore, coal, copper, and gold in areas of Punjab and Balochistan province, while Lead-Zinc-Barite investigations will be carried out in Balochistan, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (KP) and Sindh. There are great reserves of coal in Pakistan.
It is assumed that there are over 25 Million metric tons of coal deposits. At current times, we are getting 20 thousand metric tons of coal yearly from these mines. (16th May 2018).
