Why in News?

=> The Directorate General of Mines Safety (DGMS), Dhanbad, issued a notification increasing the number of regional offices from 29 to 38.

Key Points:

=> After more than a decade, the regional offices of the Directorate General of Mines Safety have been reconstituted and their number has been increased.

• However, there is no change in the number of zones (currently 8).

=> Two regional offices each have been added at Eastern Zone Sitarampur, South-Eastern Zone Ranchi, Southern Zone Bangalore, Western Zone Nagpur and North-Western Zone Udaipur, one each at South Central Zone Hyderabad and Northern Zone Ghaziabad.

=> Guwahati Region-2 in Eastern Zone Sitarampur, Bhubaneswar Region-2 in South-Eastern Zone Ranchi, Bellary Region-2 in Southern Zone Bangalore, Parsia Region-2 in Western Zone Nagpur, Ahmedabad Region-2 in North-Western Zone Udaipur, Nellore Region and Hyderabad Region-3 in South Central Zone Hyderabad and Srinagar Region and Ajmer Region-2 in Northern Zone Ghaziabad have been added.

=> It may be mentioned that earlier the regional offices of DGMS were restructured in the year 2009, then the existing 6 zones with 6 zones, 21 regional offices and 5 sub-regional offices were brought down to the current level of 29 regional zones with 2 new zones and 3 sub-regional offices.

=> 2 new zones - Southern Zone and North-Western Zone and 8 new Regional Offices- Varanasi, Surat, Ahmedabad, Bangalore, Bellary, Guwahati (Upgradation from Sub-Regional to Regional), Raigarh and Gwalior were formed.

=> At that time, the Ramgarh sub-regional office was transferred to Ranchi and the Southern-Eastern Zone was merged with Ranchi.