Telangana Pradesh Congress Committee (TPCC) president A. Revanth Reddy demanded that the Telangana government purchase 49% stake held by the Centre to stop the privatisation of Singareni Collieries Company Ltd (SCCL).
Extending full support to the employees striking against the Centre’s decision to privatise four coal fields, he demanded the government to clear ₹13,000 crore of its dues to the SCCL.
Mr. Reddy in a statement here said that SCCL had been serving the country for the last 132 years and it was the first public sector undertaking in the country with the State and Central Governments having a share of 51% and 49% respectively. It had generated revenues of thousands of crores in the form of cess and dividend for both the governments. Despite the SCCL being the jewel of the country the Central Government was proposing to privatise four coal blocks - Kalyan Khani block-6, Koyagudem block-3, Sathupalli block-3 and Shravanapalli, belonging to the SCCL.
The Congress chief alleged that the TRS government was equally responsible for the decision and Chief Minister K. Chandrasekhar Rao cannot wash his hands of it by just writing to the Centre despite the State holding majority stake. The TRS MPs did not utter a single word about SCCL privatisation during the ongoing winter session of Parliament, he said.
Mr. Reddy said the livelihood of nearly one lakh families, including those of 75,000 SCCL employees, will be at stake and privatisation will end the job opportunities for the poor in the region. He also alleged that the BJP government failed to explore the huge coal reserves in the country to increase production. Instead, it took measures to cripple the existing production to benefit a few private companies.
