HYDERABAD: The BJP demanded an explanation from the Telangana government on how Singareni Collieries Company Limited gave away three very productive open cast coal mines – at Bhupalapalli, Srirampur and Manuguru – to private contractors on lease.
BJP MLA Etala Rajendar on Friday that the state government and the BRS claimed falsely that the Centre was about to privatise SCCL. “On the other hand, it is the SCCL, under instructions from the state government, which has handed over its mines to private parties,” Rajendar said.
Addressing a press conference, Rajendar challenged the government to a debate on all issues related to SCCL, and demanded that the government issue a White Paper on the company. “If the Chief Minister is not willing to come for a debate on SCCL, then he or anyone else in the government will have no right to talk about the issue,” he said.
“Is it not true that the three mines were given to private contractors?
Prime Minister Narendra Modi made it very clear that the state government owns 51 per cent stake in SCCL and declared that there were no question of the Centre privatising it,” Rajendar said.
The SCCL workers were fully aware of all issues including how the government made a big show of bidding for the Visakhapatnam Steel Plant. If it was sincere about the welfare of SCCL workers, the government must explain how the employee strength fell from 63,000 in 2014 to 43,000 now, and how contract workers increased from 20,000 to 30,000 in the same period, the BJP MLA added.
Rajendra said that BRS’ claims that coal mines were not being allotted to SCCL were false. The then TRS supported amendments to the Mines and Minerals Development and Regulation Act 1957 and okayed the Coal Mines Special Provision Act in 2015 which said when state-owned companies do not come forward to take coal blocks offered to them, the mines can be auctioned to private companies.
Under this provision, three mines – New Patrapada, Naini and Pengadapa, with around 1,200 million tonnes of reserves — were offered to SCCL. Also offered were four mines in Telangana – KK6, KOC-III, Sattupalli and Shravanpalli – but SCCL did not apply for them before 2019. It was only in 2021 that the Centre called tenders for these mines for auction and even then the SCCL or the state government could have bid for them, but they did not.
