The State Council, China's central government, has issued a general plan on emergency response for accidental calamities.

Nine kinds of accidental calamities, listed on the plan, involve production safety, railway transportation, civil aviation, marine salvation, subway transportation, large-scale power failure, nuclear, environment and communication security.

The plan aims to regulate management and procedure of emergency response for the nine kinds of accidental calamities, increase the government's efficiency and competence in the face of accidental calamities, minimize the casualties and property losses, safeguard people's life and maintain social stability.

Text of the plan is available on the Chinese government's website www.gov.cn and Xinhua's website www.xinhuanet. com.

The State Council on Jan. 8 issued a general plan on emergency response to guide the prevention and treatment of various incidents including natural disasters, accidents, public health incidents and social safety incidents.

The plan stipulates that the State Council is the highest organ in the management of emergency response. An office in charge of emergency response management will be set up by the State Council to collect information of various incidents and coordinate the emergence response work.

The incidents are ranked as Class I (most serious), Class II (serious), Class III (relatively serious) and Class IV (ordinary). The alarm of the incidents will be shown with colors of red, orange, yellow and blue respectively, according to the general plan.

Those who make outstanding contributions to emergency response will be awarded, while those who fail to report the true state of incidents or cover up accidents will be punished according to law and regulations, the plan says.

Source: Xinhua