Telangana: BRS stages Maha Dharna against auction of Singareni mines

Hyderabad: The Bharat Rashtra Samithi (BRS) on Saturday organised a ‘Maha Dhama’ to protest against the Centre’s decision to auction Singareni Collienes Company Limited (SCCL) coal mines during Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s visit to the city on Saturday.

BRS party working president and IT minister KT Rama Rao (KTR) took to Twitter to share a news report of the central government removing four Tamil Nadu coal blocks from the auction list following strong objections in the state. He said that the BRS is demanding the same reaction from the union government.

KTR alleged that the BJP is discriminating against Telangana in comparison with other states.

Welfare Minister Koppula Eashwar, MLA Korukanti Chander and other leaders took forward the Maha Dhama in Godavarikhani chowk.

Eashwar said that the Union government is “selling” Indian Airlines, ports, Life Insurance Corporation (LIC), Bharat Sanchar Nigam Limited (BSNL) and other public sector units to PM Modi’s “frends” Adani and Ambani. “On similar lines, Singareni, which is running in profits, will be privatised and the employees will lose their jobs because of the lack of mines”

Panchayatraj minister Errabelli Dayakar Rao and ST Welfare Satyavathi Rathod participated in the Maha Dharna in Jayashankar Bhupalpally.

Forest minister Allola Indrakaran Reddy, MLA N Diwakar Rao and other party leaders were present at the protest staged at Naspur mandal centre. BRS whip Balka Suman demanded the centre abandon its plans to auction the Satthupalli, Shravanapalli and Penugadapalli coal blocks.

Speaking at the protest, Suman dubbed the auction of coal blocks as “a conspiracy” to wreck the economical condition of Telangana and warned that failure in stopping the auction will lead to a boycott of BJP leaders from the coal belt area.

Transport minister Puvvada Ajay Kumar, MP Vaddiraju Ravichandra, MLAs Vanama Venkateshwar Rao, and K Upender Reddy continued the Maha Dhama in Kothagudem.

Talking about the Maha Dharna, the BJP MLA Eatala Rajender held that the state government was responsible for the debts incurred by Singereni Collieries Company Limited (SCCL).

After the amendment of the Mines and Minerals Regulation Act in 2015 that gave leverage to the Telangana government to get coal blocks allocated through Coal India, it failed to apply and secure even one of the four coal blocks directly under its control since 2017,” said Eatala.

Rajender further alleged that the BRS willfully made the Singareni write to the Centre that mining the Tadicherla block wasn’t feasible. “Genco was allocated the Tadicherla coal block, and it requested Singareni to do the mining. But Singareni was asked to submit that it wasn’t viable,” said Eatala.