State against privatisation of Singareni Collieries : Jagadish Reddy

Hyderabad: Amid the demand from both the ruling and Opposition members to adopt a resolution urging the Government of India not to privatise coal mines in Singareni, Energy Minister G Jagadish Reddy on Friday said the State government will not allow privatisation of Singareni Collieries.

He was replying to questions on privatisation of coal mines by the Centre by members from both sides during question hour. D Sridhar Babu (Cong) raised the question. Members from the coal belt urged the minister to adopt a resolution and send it to the Centre urging it not to auction coal mines. The Congress members wanted an all-party delegation to visit New Delhi to take up the issue with the Centre.

The minister said there was no communication on privatisation of Singareni. He said after MMDR Act 2015, SCCL had requested the Coal Ministry for reservation of coal bearing areas in the Godavari valley Coal fields under Section 17A of the Act, but the ministry did not agree. To augment coal production as per the Centre's directive some feasible coal blocks identified were requested by SCCL for allocation under Section 11A of the Act, informing the ministry that once these blocks were allocated to SCCL, production can be quickly ramped up within two- three years as they were mostly dip side extension areas of already operating mines of the company with a life of around 13-15 years, but the SCCL request was not considered, he stated.

Reddy said the Centre was on a selling spree and formed a ministry of disinvestment. "The Centre is selling profitable companies; it is not leaving any sector. The CM is aware of the situation. Until KCR is alive the TRS government will not allow the Singareni to be privatised. If needed, another agitation would be taken up on the lines of separate Telangana," he asserted.

Targeting the Opposition members, the minister said there were a few black marketeers and 'chillargallu' as their life itself was dependent on contracts by holding out threats. They don't care about common people. The government is transparent," Reddy claimed.

Coal belt MLAs, including CLP leader Bhatti Vikramarka, B Suman, N Diwakar Rao, Sandra Venkata Veeraiah, Gandra Venkataramana Reddy, Komatireddy Rajagopal Reddy, D Chennaiah spoke on the issue.