The local government in Linfen, in north China's coal-rich Shanxi Province, has sacked 35 officials over three mine accidents that killed 32 people in March, sources told Xinhua on Friday.
Greedy, lawless mine owners are not the only ones to blame for the accidents. A lack of supervision and malpractice by officials is also a cause, the sources said.
The local authorities have also expelled two government staff for misconduct.
The punished officials are from county and town-level governments and coal industry, work safety, land resources and police bureaus.
Seven officials in Yaodu district are the latest to be sacked over a coal mine explosion that killed 26 on March 28. The mine's production license had expired.
On March 14, a flooded coal mine in Hongdong county claimed three lives, and two days later in Xiangning county three miners died in another accident.
The March 28 accident is the second major one in four months in Linfen, a city with more than 400 mines. Twenty-four miners were killed in the blast which struck Luweitan colliery in the city on Nov. 27, 2006. The mine's production permit and safety license had both expired before the accident.
Coal mine accidents killed 4,746 people in 2006 and 357 in the first two months of this year, figures from the State Administration of Work Safety (SAWS) show.
China has set a goal of reducing the death rate to 2.1 for every one million tons of coal produced by 2010, down from 2.81 in2005. The 2005 mine fatality figure was 70 times worse than the equivalent United States figure and seven times the figures in Russia and India
据新华社周五消息称,由于3月发生在产煤大户山西省林丰县的3起煤矿事故导致了32人身亡,当地政府已解雇了35名政府官员.要为这些事故负责任的不仅是那些无视法律的贪心的煤矿主,当地官员对其缺乏监管以及玩忽职守也是原因之一.同时,因为对事故处理不当当地政府也开除了2名政府工作人员. 受罚的政府官员都来自于县和镇级的矿务、工作安全、国土和公安部门．瑶都区的７名官员是最近的由于矿难而被解雇的官员，这场矿难发生在３月２８日并致使２６人死亡．这个煤矿的执照已被吊消． ３月１４日，红东县一座被水淹的煤矿造成３人死亡，两天以后在向宁县又有３名矿工死于另一起事故． 林丰县，一个有着４００多座煤矿的县城３月２８日发生的事故是该县连续４个月以来的第二大重大事故．２００６年１１月２７日，陆威台煤矿发生爆炸，２４名矿工遇难．而在此之前该矿的开采及安全许可证均已吊消． 国家工作安全委员会的数据显示，２００６年有４，７４６人死于矿难而今年前两个月就有３５７人死亡． 中国就降低死亡人数设定了目标，那就是在２０１０年前每产一百万吨煤死亡率从２００５年的２.８降到２.１．在２００５年中国矿难死亡人数与美国相比是它的７０倍，即便同俄罗斯和印度比也是它们的７倍．
