Industrial saftey begins at home: NLC Chairman

PUDUCHERRY: The Neyveli Lignite Corporation (NLC)  has a remarkable safety record and an excellent supervisor - worker ratio of  1:6, the highest in the country, said its chairman and managing director A R Ansari.He was speaking at function organised here recently to celebrate ‘Safety Week’.Stating that industrial safety began at home, Ansari said even a small disturbance due to a less conducive environment at home will disturb the concentration of employees leading to accidents and damage in the workplace.D Sengupta, Deputy Director General Mines Safety/Southern Zone, Bengaluru, who was the chief guest, said that most of the accidents occurred due to human error. He suggested collection of  data of accidents and analysing them to sort out the causes and factors.By this systematic analysis, one could identify the vulnerable areas and improve the working conditions on safety  by deploying more number of supervisors, thus nullifying accidents, he added.The TN and Kerala Mines Safety Association is creating safety awareness among the mine employees, especially in the unorganised sectors.  Every year, the association celebrates Safety Week at all 331 mines in Tamil Nadu and Kerala.Five units of NLC, viz, all the three thermal power stations, mechanical services and central workshop, have had a zero accident rate in 2010.Based on the maximum number of man days, Thermal Power Station-II was awarded the Chairman’s shield for reduction in injury rate among the production units, while central workshop bagged the Director (Mine)’s Shield for reduction in the injury rate among service units.Thermal Power Station-I, Thermal Power Station-I Expansion and Mechanical Services Department were also honoured with special awards.  Also, Thermal Power Station -I Expansion received special appreciation for achieving ‘zero-accident’ for five consecutive years.