HYDERABAD: The BJP on Sunday accused the TRS of attempting to mislead workers of coal mines with cooked up stories about how the Central government was on its way to privatise the Singareni Collieries Company Limited (SCCL)-owned mines in Telangana.
“There is no move whatsoever by the Centre to sell the SCCL or its mines. This was made clear in a letter from Union minister for coal and mines Pralhad Joshi,” said BJP Telangana unit president Bandi Sanjay here on Sunday.
As per the letter from Joshi, the SCCL currently is held on a 51:49 equity basis by the state and Central governments, with the Telangana government owning majority share.
Under such circumstances, there was no question of any privatisation of SCCL or its operations unless the Telangana government agreed to it, nor was any such proposal on the cards, Joshi had said.
Sanjay said the Union coal minister made it clear that the recent auction of coal blocks in the country included four coal blocks in the SCCL command area but no one had come forward to place bids on these.
If the SCCL wished, it could bid for these blocks, Sanjay said, quoting the March 25 dated letter he received from Joshi.
Sanjay said the noise being made by the TRS leaders on the so-called SCCL privatisation was only with an aim to create trouble ahead of the SCCL union elections.
“There is no reason for any Singareni employee to worry or get agitated on the lies being spread by the TRS leaders about the company being privatised,” Sanjay said.
