Bandi Sanjay failed to smell a rat in Centre's plan, charges Vinod

Hyderabad: Telangana State Planning Board vice-chairman B Vinod Kumar on Monday said that the State BJP president Bandi Sanjay was unable to understand the Central government's massive conspiracy to shut down the Singareni collieries.

Kumar said the Centre on August 10 handed over the Koyyalagudem-III coal block in Sathupalli to Aura Coal, a private firm, through an auction. If there are no coal blocks, what will the Singareni do? It will shut down. It is the Centre that is undermining Singareni, a State government undertaking.

He alleged that there was a massive conspiracy by the Centre to kill Singareni; that is why the it was auctioning coal blocks. "If the Central government is sincere then is should hand over coal blocks to Singareni. A person who doesn't know this little fact is State BJP president," Kumar stated. He said of the 82 coal blocks in the State, Singareni was using 40. He demanded the Centre to hand over the remaining 42 blocks to Singareni. According to the Mines and Minerals Act, 1957, the government was auctioning the coal blocks; Singareni should compete with private corporates in public auction to get them, he said.

Kumar asked why Bandi Sanjay does not understand that Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Union Minister Prahlad Joshi were clearly trying to weaken Singareni company and hand it over the coal blocks to corporate companies.