Coal mines auction heats up politics

Hyderabad : The decision of the Centre to auction coal mines in Telangana has heated up politics in the state. It has also resulted in war of words between the Congress and BRS.

Targeting the two national parties and the Union ministers on the issue, the BRS said that an action plan would be worked out after a meeting with the leaders of Telangana Boggu Ghani Karmika Sangham (TBGKS) at Telangana Bhavan on Saturday. Deputy Chief Minister Bhatti Vikramarka, on the other hand, said his government would urge the Union Coal Minister G Kishan Reddy to withdraw the decision to auction the mines.

Referring to the launching of the auction of the coal mines in Hyderabad on Friday by the minister, Bhatti said the State government would ask Kishan Reddy to allot the Sravanapalli coal block in Mancherial district to the SCCL without auction. The mine is likely to go for the auction in a couple of months. IT Minister D Sridhar Babu said Chief Minister A Revanth Reddy would soon meet the Prime Minister on this issue.

Bhatti said if no new coal mines were acquired, the SCCL would remain a history. He said an amendment to the Mines and Minerals (Development and Regulation) Act, 1957, the NDA government opened the way for the auctioning of all the coal mines and leasing them to private firms.

He further said on October 29, 2021, the SCCL board had decided to take part in the auctioning to acquire new coal mines, but a few days later the then government had decided not to take part in the auctioning as a result of which Sathupalli-II and Koyagudem blocks were acquired by two separate private firms. But these two firms had failed to start coal production within the fixed time frame due to lack of expertise and the allotment of the mines had since lapsed.

Bhatti said the two BJP ministers from the state -- Union Coal Minister G Kishen Reddy and Bandi Sanjay should take up the issue with the Centre.

He said he would meet Kishan Reddy and request him to take special interest in the issue and if needed the government was ready to take an all-party delegation to meet the Prime Minister.

The Congress leader targeted the BRS party stating that it was the pink party that supported the Mines and Minerals Act in 2015 and was now opposing the auctioning of the mines. He alleged that the BRS which stopped Singareni from competing in the auction ensured their friend’s companies to get Koyagudem and Sattupalli blocks.

“It is surprising that while the BRS opposes auction in Telangana, it wants the government to compete in the bidding process in Odisha.” Bhatti advised the BRS leaders not to take up misleading campaign for narrow political gains. He said the attempt to mudslinging will not help. All parties should work unitedly on certain issues cutting across party lines.

Meanwhile, Kishan Reddy ruled out the privatisation of Singareni. He said the auction represents a pivotal moment in the mission to achieve self-reliance in the sector. He said that there was no question of privatisation of Singareni as was being claimed by the BRS. He said the BRS always wants to play on sympathy for narrow political gains.