An executive meeting of the State Council yesterday passed in
principle a resolution on the issue of energy saving and approved
punitive measures in the handling of a major fake drug case and a
deadly coal mine explosion. Premier Wen Jiabao presided at the meeting.?
The resolution, titled "State Council Resolution on Stepping Up
the Work of Energy Saving," highlights the importance of saving
energy for China, a country with the world's largest population but
suffering from a shortage of energy resources.
The meeting called for a redoubling of efforts to build up an
energy-efficient industrial system, do a first rate job in major
energy-consuming industries, improve energy-saving technology,
tighten control on energy consumption, build a mechanism to ensure
energy-saving implementation and improve the awareness of the
public on the need to save energy.?
Regarding the fake drugs and coal mine explosion that have drawn
nationwide attention the executive meeting approved punishments for
those concerned.?
Xun Fubo, deputy director of the Food and Drug Administration of
Qiqihar, northeast China's Heilongjiang Province, has been sacked for
negligence over a fake drug case that caused the deaths of 11
people.
The police have also detained 10 people involved in the case
including the former general manager of Qiqihar No.2 Pharmaceutical
Co Ltd, which produced the fake Armillarisin A injection, for
further investigation.
Drug authorities in south China's Guangdong Province reported on May 3 that
patients using the injection had developed acute kidney failure
symptoms, which prompted immediate investigations.
It has been discovered that Wang Guiping, a drug dealer in
Taixing of Jiangsu Province, forged production documents
and sold "propylene glycol" as a raw material for producing the
Armillarisin A injection to the Qiqihar drug plant in October 2005.
Wang's "propylene glycol" was actually "diglycol," an industrial
chemical that causes acute kidney failure if it gets into the
systems of humans.?
The buyer and quality inspector at the drug plant failed to
discover the problem and allowed the fake raw material to be used
in producing the Armillarisin A injections.
The meeting also agreed to give Party and administrative
punishments to 33 people including Liu Haisheng, deputy governor of
Heilongjiang Province and transfer 11 of them to judicial
departments holding them responsible for a tragic coal mine
explosion in Heilongjiang, which killed 171 people and injured 48
others.
Investigations showed that the deadly blast that occurred at
9:22 PM on November 27, 2005, was the responsibility of workers who
failed to follow safety rules by using the wrong type of dynamite
to deal with a jam in coal storage area.
The meeting urged local authorities to learn lessons from these
incidents and make greater efforts to ensure the safety of
people.?
(Xinhua News Agency July 20, 2006)