HYDERABAD

The Bharat Rashtra Samithi (BRS) has expressed serious concern over the deteriorating condition of Singareni Collieries Company Ltd (SCCL) under the Congress Government, alleging that the company has become a hub of scams and financial mismanagement.

Addressing the State executive meeting of the Telangana Boggu Gani Karmika Sangham (TBGKS) affiliated to BRS here on Tuesday, senior leader of the party T. Harish Rao said that Singareni, once considered the pride and wealth of Telangana, was now pushed into crisis due to the Congress Government’s policies.

While the previous BRS Government had revived Singareni by recruiting nearly 19,000 workers on compassionate grounds and regular recruitment, the Congress Government was weakening the organisation and threatening the existing jobs. “Providing jobs was the agenda of BRS, while removing jobs has become the task of the Congress,” he remarked.

He pointed out that dues payable to Singareni had increased alarmingly under the Congress rule as the government and power utilities’ dues pending to Singareni stood only at ₹2,000 crore in 2014 and later reached to around ₹7,000 crore during the BRS regime. However, in just two-and-a-half years of Congress rule, the dues payable to Singareni had risen to nearly ₹21,000 crore, he pointed out.

Mr. Harish Rao explained that the dues in lieu of energy supply to the Discoms alone had crossed ₹20,000 crore and said that the company was being pushed into Overdraft (OD) despite maintaining strong fixed deposits once. “The State Government OD is around ₹3,200 crore, while Singareni’s OD has crossed ₹4,000 crore”, he noted.

The former minister also raised serious questions regarding coal stock figures shown on the official Singareni website. He stated that the website showed availability of 40 lakh metric tonnes of coal stock and income tax was also paid based on the reported revenue from that stock. He sought to know the whereabouts of coal worth nearly ₹1,600 crore (at ₹4,000 per tonne) and suggested TBGKS to question the management over the issue.

Appeal to Kishan Reddy

The BRS leaders demanded that Union Coal Minister G. Kishan Reddy disclose details regarding the missing coal stock and make public the findings of the committee reportedly constituted by the Centre after BRS raised allegations of corruption in coal mines.

On the government decision to move ahead with a solar power project in Jaisalmer near the Pakistan border in partnership with Rajasthan, Mr. Harish Rao asked why the government was rushing ahead with solar projects in faraway places (States) even before approvals for detailed project report and power purchase agreement.

President of the TBGKS and former minister Koppula Eshwar said the trade union would contest alone without any alliance in the elections to be held to choose recognised trade union.