1. Every place in a mine whether belowground or in opencast workings, including travelling roadways and landings, where work is carried on or where persons are stationed or required to pass shall be placed under the charge of a sirdar or other competent person.
2. The mine or district assigned to a sirdar or other competent person shall not be of such a size, nor shall any additional duties other than his duties under these regulations be such as to be likely to prevent him from carrying out in a through manner the duties prescribed for him under these regulations, and if any doubt arises as to the foregoing, it shall be referred to the Chief Inspector for decision.
3. At the entrance to every mine or district, one or more stations shall be fixed by the manager, and except in the case of a mine working in a continuous succession of shifts, no person other than the persons making the examination under sub-regulation (4) or an official shall pass beyond any such station until all the roadways and working places to which persons are required to have access, have been examined by the competent person in charge of the mine or district and found to be satisfactorily ventilated and in safe condition.
4. Every station referred to in sub-regulation (3) shall be legibly marked ‘STATION’ and shall be of such a size as to accommodate all the persons employed in the district in any one shift.
5. The sirdar or other competent person accompanied by such assistants as may be required shall, within two hours before the commencement of work in a shift, inspect every part of the mine or district assigned to him, in which persons have to work or pass during the shift and all roadways and working places where work is temporarily stopped and shall ascertain the condition thereof as regards ventilation, sanitation, presence of gases, the state of the roof and sides, presence of spontaneous heating and other fire risks, and generally so far as the safety of the persons is concerned, and similar inspection shall be made once at least in every four hours during which the shift continues, of all the roadways and other places to which persons engaged in the mine or district are required to have access.
6. The examination under sub-regulation (5) shall be made with an approved flame safety lamp or any other approved apparatus made for the purpose and in case of a fiery seam, also with an apparatus for detecting carbon monoxide gas approved by the Chief Inspector.
7. In case of opencast workings, the sirdar shall pay attention to overhangs, undercuts, presence of loose stone, materials or trees, etc., within 3 meters of the edges, foot paths for traveling and carrying loads, fencing on top of the quarry and disused part or abandoned quarries, fencing along footpaths and benches where required, use of personal protective equipment and condition of dumps.
8. The sirdar or other competent person shall, at the completion of his shift, record without delay the result of his inspections in a bound paged book in the format specified for the purpose and every such report shall be an accurate report of the inspections and shall include the following, namely: -
(a) the details referred to in sub-regulation (5) and (7);
(b) the number of persons working under his charge;
(c) such instructions for the purposes of securing the safety of the persons as he may have given during his shift; and
(d) the date and time of the inspections, the signature of the sirdar or other competent person, and the date and time when the report was written.
9. In the case of a shaft in the course of being sunk, the competent person shall –
(a) have entire charge of the shaft bottom and shall, in his shift, remain in the shaft while persons are at work at the bottom of the shaft;
(b) be the last person to ascend the shaft at the end of the shift and if his shift is succeeded immediately by another shift, he shall not leave the bottom of the shaft until after the descent of his reliever of the succeeding shift; and
(c) after each round of shots, and at the beginning of every shift, and after every cessation of work in the shaft for a period exceeding two hours, shall examine the sides of the shaft and remove all loose pieces before persons are allowed to descend.
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