Hyderabad: The BRS on Thursday warned companies and private entities to stay away from the proposed auction of coal blocks that should be given by the Centre to the Singareni Collieries Company Limited (SCCL) and “not to complain later when we return to power in the state in four and a half years and reverse any outcome of the auction.”
The warning was sounded by BRS working president K.T. Rama Rao at a press conference in Telangana Bhavan, the party headquarters, here on Thursday.
Rao said “if private companies take part in the auction then they should not blame us later as once we return to power, we will undo the auction.”
He said “as long as K. Chandrasekhar Rao was the Chief Minister, Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Union Minister G. Kishan Reddy did not dare to auction coal blocks allotted to SCCL. Now the BJP and the Congress have joined hands to weaken Singareni by auctioning coal blocks and not giving the allotted mines to SCCL as was done with other public sector undertakings in other states like Gujarat, Odisha and Tamil Nadu.”
Rao said “this is why we said we need 16 of our voices in the Lok Sabha. People have given eight seats each to the BJP and Congress, whose representatives are not doing anything to stop the auction. We demand that the auctions be stopped and the coal blocks duly allotted to Singareni. N. Chandrababu with his 16 MPs in the Lok Sabha has stopped privatisation of the Vizag Steel Plant (VSP) in Andhra Pradesh.”
Going further he said “Knowing that the VSP playbook will be repeated here and despite the Centre placing a sword on our neck, KCR resisted coal block auctions for nine and a half years. VSP sought the Bailadila iron ore mines but that was given to a private company. Without its own captive mine, VSP went into losses because of which the Centre said that it must be sold. This is exactly what will happen to Singareni if coal block auctions take place.”
After KCR wrote to the Centre in 2021 saying that SCCL is a government-owned company and it must be given coal blocks without any auction, A. Revanth Reddy followed suit and opposed the auction.
“What has changed now? Why is the Chief Minister now saying SCCL will take part in the auctions? Is he afraid of some cases?” Rao wondered.
