21Power to make regulations

(1) The appropriate Government may, by notification in the Official Gazette, make regulations consistent with this Act for providing for the safety, health and welfare of dock workers.

(2) Such regulations may provide for all or any of the following purposes, namely:--

(a) providing for the general requirement relating to the construction, equipping and maintenance for the safety of working places on shore, ship, dock, structure and other places at which any dock work is carried on;

(b) providing for the safety of any regular approaches over a dock, wharf, quay or other places which dock workers have to use for going for work and for fencing of such places and projects;

(c) providing for the efficient lighting of all areas of dock, ship, any other vessel, dock structure or working places where any dock work is carried on and of all approaches to such places to which dock workers are required to go in the course of their employment;

(d) providing and maintaining adequate ventilation and suitable temperature in every building or an enclosure on ship where dock workers are employed;

(e) providing for the fire and explosion prevention and protection;

(f) providing for safe means of access to ships, holds, stagings, equipment, lifting appliances and other working places;

(g) providing for the safety of workers engaged in the opening and closing of hatches, protection of ways and other openings in the docks which may be dangerous to them;

(h) providing for the safely of workers on docks from the risk of falling overboard being struck by cargo during loading or unloading operations;

(i) providing for the construction, maintenance and use of lifting and other cargo handling appliances and services, such as, pallets containing or supporting loads and provision of safety appliances on them, if necessary;

(j) providing for the safety of workers employed in freight container terminals or other terminals for handling unitised cargo;

(k) providing for the fencing of machinery, live electrical conductors, steam pipes and hazardous openings;

(l) providing for the construction, maintenance and use of staging;

(m) providing for the rigging and use of ship's derricks;

(n) providing for the testing, examination, inspection and certification as appropriate of loose gears including chains and ropes and of slings and other lifting devices used in the dock work;

(o) providing for the precautions to be taken to facilitate escape of workers when employed in a hold, bin, hopper or the like or between decks of a hold while handling coal or other bulk cargo;

(p) providing for the measures to be taken in order to prevent dangerous methods of working in the stacking, unstacking, stowing and unstowing of cargo or handling in connection therewith;

(q) providing for the handling of dangerous substances and working in dangerous or harmful environments and the precautions to be taken in connection with such handling;

(r) providing for the work in connection with cleaning, chipping, painting operations and precautions to be taken in connection with such work;

(s) providing for the employment of persons for handling cargo, handling appliances, power operated hatch covers or other power operated ship's equipment, such as, door in the hull of a ship, ramp, retraceable car deck or similar equipment or to give signals to the drivers of such machinery;

(t) providing for the transport of dock workers;

(u) providing for the precautions to be taken to protect dock workers against harmful effects of excessive noise, vibrations and air pollution at the work place;

(v) providing for protective equipment or protective clothing;

(w) providing for the sanitary, washing and welfare facilities;

(x) providing for--

(i) the medical supervision;

(ii) the ambulance rooms, first aid and rescue facilities and arrangements for the removal of dock workers to the nearest place of treatment;

(iii) the safety and health organisation; and

(iv) the training of dock workers and for the obligations and rights of the dock workers for their safety and health at the work place;

(y) providing for the investigation of occupational accidents, dangerous occurrences and diseases, specifying such diseases and the forms of notices, the persons and authorities to whom, they are to be furnished, the particulars to be contained in them and the time within which they are to be submitted; and

(z) providing for the submission of statement of accidents, man-days lost, volume of cargo handled and particulars of dock workers.

(3) The regulations made under this section may,--

(a) provide for the circumstances in which and the conditions subject to which, exemptions from any of the regulations made under this section may be given specifying the authorities who may grant such exemptions and regulating their procedure; and

(b) make special provision to meet the special requirement of any particular port or ports.

(4) In making a regulation under this section the appropriate Government may direct that a breach thereof shall be punishable with imprisonment for a term which may extend to six months, or with fine which may extend to five thousand rupees, or with both, and, if the breach is continued after conviction, with a further fine which may extend to one hundred rupees for each day on which the breach is so continued.