Telangana demands Centre allot coal mines in the state to Singareni Collieries

Hyderabad: The Congress government in Telangana has urged the Centre not to auction coal mining blocks in the state and allot them to public sector miner Singareni Collieries Company Ltd (SCCL).

A day before the launch of the 10th tranche of auctions of coal mines by the Ministry of Coal in Hyderabad, Deputy Chief Minister and Finance and Energy Minister, Mallu Bhatti Vikramarka said all the mining blocks in the coal belt area of the state should be allotted to the SCCL.

A delegation of the state government led by Vikramarka will meet Union Coal and Mines Minister G. Kishan Reddy on Friday to make a representation in this regard.

Addressing a press conference along with Agriculture Minister Tummala Nageswara Rao in Khammam, the Deputy CM said the state would seek allotment of new mines through nomination, not auction, as SCCL was a public sector company.

They said if Singareni was not allotted new coal mines, its very existence would be at stake.

The ministers urged Kishan Reddy, who hails from Telangana, to take the initiative in allotting mining blocks to SCCL. Vikramarka said the government, if necessary, would take an all-party delegation to Delhi to meet Prime Minister Narendra Modi to request him to allot mining blocks to SCCL for its needs beyond 2030. He mentioned that currently coal is extracted from 40 mines in the state but 22 of these mines are nearing depletion. These mines are likely to close by 2030 and this will affect 42,000 direct employees and 26,000 outsourced workers of the SCCL.

The current coal production of 70 million tonnes is likely to drop to 15 million tonnes.

The ministers demanded that the Koyagudem coal block of Sattupalli that was auctioned recently should also be allotted to the SCCL.

They alleged that the Bharat Rashtra Samithi (BRS) had supported a bill brought by the BJP government in the Parliament to deprive the public sector companies of coal mines. The BRS MPs had supported an amendment made to the Mines and Minerals Act mandating the auctioning of coal mines and now the same party was opposing the auction. They said the then BRS government did not allow SCCL to participate in the auction and ensured that mining rights of the Koyagudem block were given to the companies whose leaders were closely associated with the party. Alleging that Singareni suffered losses during the BRS rule, they said the closure of old blocks and the non-allocation of new blocks resulted in a steep decline in the workforce.