KTR vents ire against Centre's move

Hyderabad: State Industries Minister KT Rama Rao on Thursday expressed ire against the Central government's announcement to auction coal mines of Singareni Collieries Company Limited (SCCL).

Rama Rao said that Prime Minister Narendra Modi recently assured people of the State that Singareni would not be privatised. However, the Centre has announced in Lok Sabha that four coal mines of SCCL will be auctioned. Stating the economic significance of Sinagreni to Telangana, Rama Rao said that SCCL's privatisation would adversely affect the State. He termed the actions of the Central government as vengeful and a conspiracy to bring down the State which is flourishing.

Rama Rao further said that SCCL stands top across the Southern States in the generation of thermal power. He questioned the necessity behind Centre's auctioning Singareni which is generating profits and has the best Plant Load Factor (PLF) in the country. The Minister said that the Centre was conspiring to push Singareni into losses. He said that a large number of Lignite mines were allocated to Gujarat Mineral Development Corporation (GMDC) following the nomination method. He questioned the Centre as to why coal mines weren't allocated to Singareni as it allocated Lignite mines to GMDC.

The Industries Minister has pointed out Centre's bias in implementing one rule for Gujarat and another for Telangana. Documents related to the process of coal mines allocation and environment clearances given to GMDC were produced by the minister. Rao reminded that from the time Telangana was formed, repeated requests of people of the State and SCCL workers to allocate coal mines were not considered favourably by the Centre.

Sharply criticizing the auctioning of coal mines, Rao said that TRS would launch an agitation if the Centre moves ahead with its plan to auction Singareni Coal Mines.

He said that the party always stands by the employees' protest against the conspiracy to privatise Singareni. He gave a call to Members of Parliament (MP) cutting across party lines to raise this crucial issue in Parliament.