BAKU, Azerbaijan, November 10. All industrial safety requirements in Kazakhstan will be revised, Prime Minister Alikhan Smailov told reporters at a briefing after the plenary session of the Senate, Trend reports on November 10 via the Kazakh media.
“In the specific case with ArcelorMittal Temirtau, a legal assessment will be given to all actions and inaction of the owners of this company,” Smailov said.
The prime minister also noted that the government should take systematic measures to ensure industrial safety at such enterprises.
“This especially concerns highly dangerous enterprises. Therefore, we are preparing additional legislative norms to improve the measures. The responsibility of the owners and managers of such industrially hazardous enterprises will be increased,” he explained. “On the other hand, control measures by the state will be strengthened. It’s proposed to legislatively fix the level of financing for the upgrading of technical re-equipment at an indicator of at least one percent of the total annual income of such companies.”
Besides, according to him, all requirements for industrial safety will be revised given new available technologies.
“It’s planned to make amendments and additions to the Code of Administrative Offenses, the Criminal Code of Business and the law ‘On civil protection’,” Smailov concluded.
It was noted that if amendments to the legislation are submitted to the Parliament this year, they will be adopted next year.
On November 3, at 3:00 (GMT +6), an accident occurred at the Lenin mine of the Coal Department of ArcelorMittal Temirtau JSC. At the time of the accident, there were 106 people underground in the mine. A total of 101 people were evacuated, five died, and four were injured and hospitalized. A criminal case was opened under article 277 part 3 (‘Violation of safety rules during mining or construction work’) of the Criminal Code of Kazakhstan.
The air ambulance team arrived at the scene of the emergency for a consultation on the condition of the victims. Later, the Director of the Coal Department of ArcelorMittal Temirtau JSC Arman Kalykov named the cause of the accident at the Lenin mine.
According to him, when drilling gas drainage wells, there was a sudden release of methane. Later, the names of the people who died as a result of the accident were published.