Coal miners' lives should never be sacrificed for economic growth, Premier Wen Jiabao said yesterday in a warning aimed at ensuring the safety of mines over the Lunar New Year holiday, state media reported yesterday.
'The work safety situation is rather severe and a profound lesson has been learned from the serious accidents in mines and other industries that resulted in huge losses of people's lives,' the People's Daily quoted him as saying.
'Work safety is of paramount importance. Economic development must be built on the basis of production safety and must never be achieved through damaging people's interests and sacrificing lives.'
Despite Beijing's push to shut illegal and dangerous coal mines and curb corruption among officials and mine operators, the number of disasters showed little sign of improving last year.
The State Administration of Work Safety says nearly 6,000 miners were killed last year in more than 3,300 accidents. Local authorities have been blamed for resisting the campaign to improve safety.
Apart from promises to set up compensation systems and work safety funds, Mr Wen urged authorities and State Council ministries to work with safety watchdogs.
