West Bengal Mining Settlements (Health And Welfare) Act, 1964
No: 25 Dated: Nov, 26 1964
THE WEST BENGAL MINING SETTLEMENTS (HEALTH AND WELFARE) ACT, 1964
West Bengal Act XXV of 1964
An Act to provide for the better control and sanitation of mining settlements in West Bengal.
It is hereby enacted as follows:-
CHAPTER I
Preliminary
1. Short title, extent and commencement. - (1) This Act may be called the West Bengal Mining Settlements (Health and Welfare) Act, 1964.
(2) It extends to the whole of West Bengal.
(3) This section shall come into force at once; the remaining sections shall come into force on such date or dates as the State Government may, by notification, appoint and, for this purpose, different dates may be appointed for different sections of this Act or for different areas to be specified in the notification.
2. Repeal of Ben. Act 2 of 1912. - (1) The Bengal Mining Settlements Act, 1912, is hereby repealed:
Provided that-
(i) any mining settlement declared, Mines Board of Health appointed, limits defined, appointment, rule, by-law or order made, notification or notice issued, expenses charged or assessed, or contract entered into under the said Act, shall, so far as may be, be deemed to have been respectively declared, established, defined, made, issued, charged or assessed, or entered into under this Act;
(ii) any legal proceeding commenced under the said Act may be continued as if the said Act had not been repealed;
(iii) the State Government may, by notification, abolish any such Mines Board of Health or reconstitute it in accordance with the provisions of this Act.
(2) All properties, movable or immovable and all interests of whatever nature or kind therein, held by or on behalf of any Mines Board of Health appointed under the Bengal Mining Settlements Act, 1912, shall continue to be vested in such Board, being a Board deemed under clause (i) of the proviso to sub-section (1) to have been established under this Act, and, where a notification abolishing or reconstituting such Board is issued under clause (iii) of the proviso to sub-section (1), shall stand transferred on and from such date and to such other Mines Board of Health, whether established under section 6 or deemed under clause (i) of the proviso to sub-section (1) to have been established under this Act, as may be specified in the notification.
3. Definitions. - In this Act, unless there is anything repugnant in the subject or context,-
(a) "Board" means a Mines Board of Health established or deemed to have been established under this Act and when used in relation to a mining settlement means the Board for such mining settlement;
(b) "notification" means a notification published in the Official Gazette;
(c) "owner", when used a relation to a mine, means any person who is in occupation of the mine or any part thereof and carries on the business, or is a contractor for the working, of such mine or part and, except for the purposes of section 27, includes the Government:
Provided that where any person is deemed, under the proviso to section 76 of the Mines Act, 1952, to be the owner of a mine for the purposes of that Act, such person shall be deemed to be the owner of the mine also for the purposes of this Act;
(d) "prescribed" means prescribed by rules made by the State Government under this Act;
(e) the expressions "employed" and "mine" have the same meaning as in the Mines Act, 1952.
4. Declaration of area as mining settlement. - (1) Whenever it appears to the State Government that it is necessary in the public interest to provide for the planned construction of buildings and structures, proper sanitation and water supply and prevention of the outbreak and spread of epidemic diseases, in any area, not being or not forming part of any mine, within which persons employed in a mine or mines reside, the State Government may publish in the Official Gazette a notice of its intention to declare such area to be a mining settlement for the purposes of this Act.
(2) A notice under sub-section (1) shall define the limits of the area intended to be declared to be a mining settlement and shall specify a period within which any objection or suggestion in regard to the intended declaration may be submitted by any person to the State Government for its consideration.
(3) On the expiry of the period for submitting objections or suggestions specified in a notice published under sub-section (1) the State Government may, after considering the objections or suggestions, if any, in regard to the intended declaration submitted to it within such period, by notification,-
(a) withdraw the notice, or
(b) declare that the area, the limits whereof have been defined in the notice, or such part thereof as may be specified in the notification, shall, for the purposes of this Act, be a mining settlement.
(4) The State Government may, by like notification issued following mutatis mutandis the procedure laid down in the foregoing sub-section, add to or alter the area included in mining settlement.
5. Application of the Act. - The provisions of this Act shall not apply to any area included within a municipality constituted under the provisions of the Bengal Municipal Act, 1932.
CHAPTER II
The Mines Board of Health
6. Establishment and incorporation of Mines Board of Health. - (1) The State Government may, by notification, establish a Mines Board of Health for a mining settlement.
(2) The Board shall, by the name of the Mines Board of Health of the mining settlement for which it is established, be a body corporate and shall have perpetual succession and a common seal with power to hold and acquire property, both movable and immovable, and, subject to such restrictions as may be prescribed, to transfer any such property held by it and to do all other things necessary for the purposes of this Act, and to sue and be sued in its corporate name.