The proposed one-day nation-wide strike national trade unions on January 8 and the ensuing biennial Sammakka-Saralakka jatara (February 5 to 8) are likely to cast their impact on coal production at the Singareni Collieries Company Limited (SCCL) in the coal belt region of Godavarikhani.
The central trade unions called the strike, opposing privatisation and FDI in the country and in pursuit of their other demands. Already, union leaders are visiting miners, seeking support to the strike. The union leaders are confident of full participation in the strike by miners. Similarly, the Sammakka-Saralakka jatara would also cause an impact on coal production in the region. The jatara is a prestigious one to people of Telangana in general and coal miners in particular. Although the Singareni authorities usually set up alternative mini-jatara sites adjoining the coal belt area to discourage the miners from going to Medaram, workers prefer to visit the actual site.
The Singareni management has already fixed a target of producing 70 million tonnes of coal during 2019-20. But, it is falling short of the target by around 3 million tonnes following incessant rains and inundation of open cast projects, which produce more coal than underground mines.
“We know, coal production would decline during the biennial jatara as the miners would go to Medaram in large numbers. But, we are confident of achieving the target by announcing sops to them during March 2020,” said the officials. In the meantime, officials and Telangana Boggu Gani Karmika Sangham (TGBKS) affiliated to TRS are leaving no stone unturned to foil the proposed strike.
