Last year in September, thousands of contract workers of the state-owned Singareni Collieries Company Limited (SCCL) went for an indefinite strike to protest for their long-pending demands. Workers along the 11 coal producing areas spread in six districts were demanding hike in wages, job security and all the statutory benefits.
Several months later, after the centre's decision to privatise the mines, the workers have been battling crisis of a different kind. The centre issued a notification to auction the coal mines in Sathupalli Block 3, Shravan Palli, Penagadapa; the auctioning process for which is scheduled to be conducted from March 29 to May 30.
Working President of the Bharat Rashtra Samithi, KT Rama Rao has been demanding that the auctioning process be rolled back. "BRS leaders, activists along with Singareni employees will protest against the centre in Mancherial, Kothagudem, Ramagundam on April 8," he said in a statement. He also added that Modi, while visiting Ramagundam in November last year, had assured that Singareni would not be privatised, but he did not stand by his promise.
Over centre's bid to privatise the mines, BRS has called for protests to co-incide with PM Modi's visit to Secunderabad to flag off the Vande Bharat Express to Tirupati.
SCCL, the coal mining company, has operations in north Telangana and is jointly owned by the Governments of Telangana and India on a 51: 49 equity basis. SCCL, reportedly, is also planning to start 13 new mines in the next three years to increase coal production. Company Chairman and MD N Sridhar recently said that expansion plans were on. Singaneri coal mines are spread over the Godavari river belt. In August 2021, the Centre had decided to auction four coal mines, which resulted in a political brouhaha in the state and among employees. The decision drew ire from Telangana government, trade unions alike.
