HYDERABAD: Continuing his tirade against the Narendra Modi government, IT and Industries Minister KT Rama Rao on Monday alleged that the BJP-led Central government had hatched a conspiracy to privatise the Singareni Collieries Company Limited (SCCL).
“The BJP government will be destroyed, if it kills Singareni,” Rama Rao said. He wrote to Union Minister of Coal and Mines opposing auctioning of coal blocks in SCCL limits. Rama Rao demanded that the Centre stop auctioning of coal blocks and allot them to Singareni.
The Centre is deliberately trying to kill Singareni, he said and alleged that the ultimate plan was to privatise the PSU by pushing it into losses. “Singareni is not just a coal mine. It is a gold mine providing lakhs of jobs to youths.
After the formation of the State, the TRS government provided 16,000 jobs in SCCL. We will lose the opportunity to provide jobs to youths, if Singareni is privatised ,” Rama Rao said. He said that if mines were closed, then the existing employees too would be rendered jobless. Workers would also forego the share in profits and rights, if it was privatised, he pointed out. Once SCCL was privatised, youths would not get reservations in jobs. This was against the Constitution and the ideals of Dr BR Ambedkar, the Minister pointed out.
“We will stand by the workers and protect Singareni by all means,” Rama Rao averred. The workers were ready to launch a massive movement against the privatisation of Singareni, Rama Rao warned the Centre. He found fault with the Centre for putting JBROC-3, KK-6, Sravanapalli OC and Koyaguda coal blocks for auction, instead of allotting them to Singareni. The decision was detrimental to the interests of Telangana, Rama Rao said.
Increase in production
Rama Rao recalled that in the last seven years, the coal production in SCCL had increased from 450 lakh tonnes to 670 lakh tonnes. The SCCL was also supplying coal to Maharashtra and other southern states, he said. SCCL was the only PSU which shared 29 per cent of its profits with its workers.Rama Rao said that the lignite mine, which was closed in Gujarat had been allotted to Gujarat Mineral
Development Corporation. Why would the coal blocks in SCCL limits not be given to SCCL, he asked. Singareni was supplying coal to around 2,000 industries in the State. If it was privatised, these 2,000 industries would not get coal, Rama Rao said and added that the development of Telangana would take a backseat.
‘Centre’s revenge’
Meanwhile, speaking to reporters here on Monday, TRS MLAs Balka Suman, Ch Kranthi Kiran and M Anand alleged that after privatising the Visakhapatnam Steel Plant, the government was now eyeing Singareni. The efforts to privatise Singareni were nothing but Centre’s form of revenge against Telangana, they alleged.