Hyderabad: Bharat Rashtra Samithi’s (BRS) working president and Telangana minister KT Rama Rao on Thursday gave a call for a massive protest against the centre’s decision to auction Singareni Collieries Company Limited (SCCL) coal mines.
Stating that the centre issued a notification to auction the mines in Sathupalli Block 3, Shravan Palli, Penagadapa, KTR demanded the auctioning process, which was scheduled to be conducted from March 29 to May 30, to be rolled back.
Vehemently opposing the central government’s ‘veiled attempts’ to privatise the SCCL, KTR gave a call for Maha Dharna, a press release stated.
Further, he demanded that SCCL should allocate the mines without auctioning. “BRS leaders and activists along with Singareni employees will protest against the centre, in Mancherial, Peddapalli, Ramagundam on April 8,” said the minister.
KTR spoke about the economic significance of SCCL, the centre’s conspiracy to impede Telangana’s growth by privatising SCCL, and the disastrous impact of its privatisation on various sections of the state.
‘Why privatise when SCCL is profitable?’
“Can anyone from the Centre dare to reason the need for privatising SCCL when it is setting records in terms of production, profits and Plant Load Factor (PLF)?” he said.
BRS’s working president said, “The centre is conspiring to push Singareni, which is currently reaping profits, into losses by not allocating the coal mines. The Centre sold many Public Sector Units (PSU) which made profits. Vizag Steel Plant (VSP) was also pushed into losses by not allocating mines to it”.
KTR slams PM Modi
He informed that the chief minister and BRS president K Chandrashekar Rao had already written to the centre stating that the coal mines needed for SCCL be allocated to it.
Adding that Singareni Employees have also placed the same demand he accused, “Though the state urged the union government for the past several years for the allocation of the mines to Singareni, the centre turned a deaf ear to it. This is despite the allocation of a large number of Lignite mines to Gujarat Mineral Development Corporation (GMDC) through nomination”.
The minister alleged, “The prime minister who was generous towards Gujarat, discriminated against the progressive Telangana. PM Narendra Modi who visited Ramagundam on November 11, 2022, assured that Singareni would not be privatised. But the PM did not stand by his promise. How would Modi respond to it during his next visit to the state?”
‘SCCL privatisation – an attempt to gut agriculture and mar CM KCR’: KTR
KTR termed the privatisation of the SCCL as an ‘attempt to mar CM KCR’s determination’ to provide 24-hour free electricity to farmers. He also alleged that the centre is trying to force the farmers to rely on bores for farming again.
“Singareni plays a crucial role in thermal power generation in the State and provides high-quality power to agricultural needs, industries, and domestic requirements, the Centre is creating obstacles to this,” he said.
“The centre is not able to digest the appreciation Kaleshwaram Lift Irrigation Project has been receiving and it is plotting to deprive the lift irrigation projects of power supply,” he further said.
Follow on Twitter | Posted by K Sherly Sharon | 
