The President of Georgia Mikheil Saakashvili went to find out the details at Tkibuli mine blast on site. Mikheil Saakashvili visited the site and spoke with the employees of "Saknakhshiri" mine personally. The President expressed his deepest sorrow and gave special tasks to the representatives of the Government. He tasked the Government the identification of each dead employee and give their families financial compensation. As Mikheil Saakashvili stated what happened is a huge tragedy. This is why it is necessary to adhere to special norms of security at the mines and give special instructions to the specialists before going down to a mine.
"As we see instructions are not conducted. Ventilation systems are installed, but as we see this is the second blast this year. We have lost four persons in March, now we have lost three. If such thing happens once - we can consider it occasional, but the second incident is already a problem. This means that the discipline is not in order here. Many hears passed since people haven't worked here, many of you are inexperienced, many are experienced - I understand that it is a very risky and heroic job, people live with this profession, they feed their families, but we must require all employees to know all the rules of security before going down to the mine. We Georgians think that nothing could happen with us. This is not so. We aren't going to stop the factory, because its function is in peak. I understand that the security measures are protected here, but not a single norm would work without the discipline. It is a huge loss for this small and very lovely town. I will give tasks to the Government that the security inspectors would always be here in order to control security measures together with you on the permanent bases. This is a big enterprise and security measures should be protected very strictly. Also we must conduct technical inventory in order to find our what else is needed for more security", Mikheil Saakashvili stated.
The President of Georgia touched the issues of medical care of people who suffered during the incident and noted that part of them were hospitalized in the Burn Center. Mikheil Saakashvili though considers the existing situation in the hospital unacceptable and says that the heaviest patients that are brought to this hospital shouldn't stay in these conditions. The President said that he already spoke with the Minister of Labor, Health and Social Security Alexander Kvitashvili. Regarding Tkibuli and this enterprise Mikheil Saakashvili stated that the working process must continue by protecting security standards. "What happened is enormously big tragedy. The society is so small here that the loss of seven people is equal of loss of several hundred people in a big city. I want to ask experienced people to instruct young people more on the security standards. We must give jobs to the family members of the victims, we must support their children in education as much as we can, if their family members are ill we must cover their healthcare expenditures. In one word we must do everything in order to make these families feel less heaviness after losing a husband or father in the family", he noted.
The President of Georgia met with the Governor of the region and spoke about the deficiency of technical specialists. Not a single applicant wanted to enter Mountain-Engineering faculty. This fact raises big concern. President noted that the State has developed certain strategy in this direction.
"Not a single entrant wanted to enter Mountain-Engineering faculty this year, because we do not have any professional school in this sphere. The salaries in this sphere are real and the job is available. We are searching for the specialists in this sphere with candles. We are preparing the specialists in International Relations instead of preparing the specialists in this sphere. We will develop base here and you will have to prepare specialists in this sphere. People must wake up. We have jobs in this sphere, the salaries are high - here is future. Technical University is practically empty, salaries in engineering are 2000-3000 GEL, but still no one wants to study there. We do not need so many specialists in International Relations, International Law and Medicine - it is impossible to give jobs to so many specialists in these fields. We need specialist in engineering that will work on high salaries. If the government will not say what spheres would be financed by it - nothing will come out. This is why we will seriously work on this issue. Nothing can be done by liberal approach. We must have state policy and we already have it - we will only finance those spheres that our country and our people need", the President noted.