Centre has no plans privatise SCCL, says Kishan Reddy

K. Venkatehswarlu
Hyderabad

Declaring that the Kalvakuntla family has hatched a conspiracy to make the Singareni Collieries Company Limited (SCCL) a Kalvakuntla company, Union Tourism Minister G. Kishan Reddy said the Kalvakuntla family has been spreading lies regarding the auction of coal mines. He made it clear that the Centre has no plans to privatise SCCL.

Addressing the media at the State BJP office here on Saturday, Kishan recalled that the TRS government had given back the three coal blocks to SCCL in 2015. The Centre did not impose any penalty even though the TRS government gave back the coal blocks against rules.

India is globally fourth in producing coal, he said and added that the Centre has decided to auction coal mines as some state governments are not in a position to produce coal.He made it clear that the Centre took this decision to increase competition in coal production.

Lashing out at Chief Minister K. Chandrasekhar Rao’s family and BRS leaders for spreading the lie that the Centre is privatising SCCL, he said that the Centre will not take any decision without the permission of the State government as the State government has 51 per cent share in SCCL.

He recalled that Prime Minister Modi had made it clear at the Ramagundam public meeting that the Centre has no plans to privatise SCCL. But BRS leaders are spreading the lie that the Centre is allocating coal mines to Gujarat and asking whether the Centre has one rule for Gujarat and another for Telangana, he pointed out.