KCR urges PM to stop auctioning of Telangana coal blocks

Hyderabad: Chief Minister K Chandrashekar Rao has requested Prime Minister Narendra Modi to stop auctioning of four coal blocks of Singareni Collieries Company Limited (SCCL) as proposed by the Union Coal Ministry recently.

In his letter to Modi, the Chief Minister has urged the Prime Minister to withdraw the proposal. He also said that with the Centre's decision, the SCCL Workers Unions have called for a three-day strike from Thursday against the auctioning of coal blocks in Telangana.

KCR said that the SCCL was producing 65 million tonnes of coal every year and playing a key role in catering to the needs of thermal power plants in Telangana, Andhra Pradesh, Maharashtra, Karnataka and Tamil Nadu States.

He said that after bifurcation of the State, the maximum demand for power was 5,661 Mega Watts in 2014 in Telangana and by March 2021, it went up to 13,688 MWs and it was essential to supply coal uninterruptedly for the generation of thermal power. Based on the Singareni needs, the State government had issued several mining licences, which the Centre was aware of and the Union Coal Ministry also gave its green signal.

The CM urged Modi to instruct the Union Coal Ministry to stop the auction of JBROC-3, Sravanpally OC, Koya Gudem OC-3 and KK-6 UG Block under Union Ministry's Trench 13, as it would adversely impact the needs under Singareni jurisdiction for coal. He also requested Modi to allocate these blocks to the Singareni Company.