A vice-mayor of Loudi in Central China's Hunan Province was dismissed from his position for his neglect of duty in dealing with work safety issues in local coalmines.
The decision was announced by Loudi People's Congress last weekend.
Chen Yuejin, vice-mayor in charge of work safety, was accused of neglecting the safety work conditions in underground coalmines, which had directly led to three serious accidents in May.
Chen is not the only one to be punished. Several county-level officials were also dismissed for the same reason.
Loudi is one of the 19 city-level regions in the country which turn out more than 10 million tons of coal a year.
But their rich coal production comes with serious safety problems. In 2001, 181 workers died in coal mine accidents.
Sources with the Loudi government said though the working conditions in local coalmines had been improved in the first four months of this year, the three accidents in May showed that there are still serious shortcomings in safety facilities.
Chen, as the top official in charge of the field, must be punished according to related regulations announced by the State Council.
A special work safety inspection team sent by the State Council was in Loudi from June 5 to 9.
The team inspected major coalmines in Loudi in the five-day tour, and agreed that the officials found to be responsible for the accidents should be punished.
(China Daily June 13, 2002)
