Peddapalli: Bharat Rashtra Samithi (BRS) working president KT Rama Rao on Wednesday, October 14, demanded a Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) probe or an inquiry by a sitting judge into an alleged Rs 10,000 crore scam in the Singareni Collieries Company Ltd (SCCL), accusing Chief Minister A Revanth Reddy of conspiring to privatise the state-run miner.
Addressing the “Singareni Karmika Garjana” meeting of coal workers, Rao alleged that the Chief Minister was blaming Singareni for the coal and power shortage. He said this was to give the company a bad name and push it towards privatisation.
He said the 4,000 MW Yadadri thermal power station at Damaracherla, built by the previous BRS government, was not producing even 400 MW because Singareni was not supplying coal.
When a BRS team met the Singareni management, officials said the state government owed the company Rs 60,000 crore and was blaming it instead of paying up, Rao claimed.
He alleged that 40 lakh tonnes of coal had gone missing and that BRS workers who asked to see the stock were arrested. “Where has the coal gone? Who made it vanish?” he asked.
Tender charges
The BRS working president alleged that under a “site visit certificate” system, contractors had to meet officials and ministers before they could bid. He claimed Revanth Reddy and his brother-in-law Sudhini Srujan Reddy were behind it.
Overburden removal tenders at the Srirampur opencast mine had been postponed seven times because commissions could not be settled, he alleged.
Accusing the Congress and the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) of collusion, Rao questioned the Centre’s silence even though it holds a 49 per cent stake in Singareni.
He said the BRS had asked Union Coal Minister Kishan Reddy to order a probe into the missing coal. Instead, the minister wrote to the Chief Minister asking the state to look into it, Rao said. “Is it because commissions are reaching you, or do you have a secret understanding with Revanth Reddy?” he asked BJP leaders.
Revanth Reddy and Srujan Reddy have earlier rejected similar BRS allegations about government contracts.
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