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)