Singareni workers reap rich dividends from govt measures

Initiatives taken…

♦    Increase in retirement age to 61 years

♦    Matching grant given by the company increased from Rs 1 lakh to Rs 10 lakh

♦    Increase in compensation from Rs 5 lakh to Rs 25 lakh in cases of employment not opting for dependent employment

♦    Employees allowed to take loan to the tune of Rs 10 lakh for construction of houses

♦    Pregnancy leave of women workers increased from 12 weeks to 26 weeks, offered childcare leaves

Hyderabad: The welfare measures taken up by the State government for the Singareni workers who dedicated most of their time working in the coal mines have become beneficial for the workers.

The State government led by Chief Minister K Chandrashekar Rao personally takes care of the welfare of the Singareni workers by reviewing the schemes and designing them. The state government has taken up several initiatives including increasing the retirement age to 61 years in Singareni, it also increased the matching grant given by the company by 10 times in case of accidental deaths. Earlier, the matching grant was Rs 1 lakh but now it has been increased to Rs 10 lakh.

The government increased the compensation of Rs 5 lakh to Rs 25 lakh in cases of employment not opting for dependent employment.

The employees were allowed to take loan to the tune of Rs 10 lakh for construction of houses for which the Singareni would pay the interest and this scheme was successfully implemented. Along with the workers, their family members were also provided super specialty medical services, the Company took steps to provide A/C facilities in all the colonies of the workers in Singareni. The company was providing the fee for the children of the workers who are studying at IIT, IIM.

The Company also introduced a scheme in which Rs 25 lakh or Rs 26,293 per month would be provided to the worker if he is medically unfit and does not want to continue the job. The pregnancy leave of women workers was increased from 12 weeks to 26 weeks and were also offered childcare leaves.

The officials said that Singareni had increased the profit bonus to the workers substantially after the formation of Telangana. The bonus which was 18 per cent in 2014 was increased to 21 per cent in 2016, 23 per cent in 2017, 25 per cent in 2018 27 per cent in 2019 and in 30 per cent in 2022.

CM KCR urged the Centre to provide four blocks to Singareni for meeting coal needs and also the electricity demand in the state. The electricity demand in 2014 was 5,661 MW but it touched 14,160 MW in 2022.