Kishore Poreddy Column :TRS spreading canards on SCCL: Four crucial questions

The Singareni Collieries Company Limited (SCCL) is a public-sector mining company owned jointly by the Government of Telangana and the Government of India on a 51:49 equity basis. The history of what today is SCCL dates back to 1889 when it produced 0.06 million tons of coal. It has grown manifold over the decades with its production reaching 65.02 million tonnes during the year 2021-22 from 25 underground and 20 opencast mines spread over six districts of Telangana.

The TRS is unable to digest the electoral outcome in the recent Munugode by-poll, where it barely scraped through with the help of two Communist ‘thoka’ parties. The TRS, together with its new ‘Loyal than the King’ Communist allies, had worked overtime to spread a canard that the Central government is planning to privatise SCCL during the recent visit of Prime Minister Modi to Telangana for dedicating the revived and expanded Ramagundam Fertilizers and Chemicals Limited (RFCL) to the nation. The Prime Minister debunked the canard with one simple question: How can the Central government, which is a minority shareholder with a 49% stake in SCCL, decide on privatising it? Such a step can be taken only by the majority stakeholder, which would be the TRS-led Telangana state government.

At a time when the Modi government is cleaning up the mess created by the previous governments in coal block allocations, the TRS leadership tried to spread another canard that the Central government is depriving new Coal Blocks to the SCCL, especially those located in Telangana.

It may be recalled that the Comptroller and Auditor General (CAG) had pointed out that due to the arbitrary allocation processes during the earlier Congress regime; the governments have lost revenue to the tune of 10.5 trillion rupees (Rs 10.5 lakh crore). The Supreme Court also held that allocations made by the previous government were illegal and arbitrary.

Against this backdrop, the Modi government brought in highly transparent reforms in the coal sector. These reforms were aimed at: ( 1) making India Atmanirbhar in energy by increasing indigenous coal production; (2) making coal block allocations completely transparent and corruption-free; (3) operationalising coal mines much faster by launching single-window clearances; (4) increasing investments in coal prospecting and mining by leveraging the financial muscle of the private sector; (5) increasing revenue from coal and lignite blocks to state governments; (6) cancelling leases of license hoarders and reassigning them; and finally (7) allowing coal companies to relinquish totally or partially mined coal block lands – which wasn’t possible earlier.

These reforms have ensured transparency, reduced delays, and are earning revenues for state governments and the districts via District Mineral Fund. It is in this context the TRS government has alleged that the coal mines that should have been allocated to the SCCL, are being privatised. The Minister for Parliamentary Affairs, Coal and Mines, Pralhad Joshi busted the propaganda of the TRS leaders by revealing the fact that the state government through SCCL had neither applied for granting these coal blocks to SCCL nor has it ever bid for these coal blocks.

The TRS government’s intentions regarding PSUs in Telangana are very suspicious. It has starved many PSU units, including SCCL, RTC and DISCOMS of funds and payments. At the same time, the TRS government lavished mega contractors with payments running into lakhs of crores of rupees since coming to power in 2014. It is time Chief Minister Chandrasekhar Rao comes clean on SCCL and answers a few questions.

Firstly, hasn’t the TRS party supported the new Coal policy in Parliament? If the new policies were detrimental to SCCL and thus, to Telangana’s interests, why did it support the policies?

Secondly, did the SCCL not bid for coal blocks outside Telangana and win them? If the new Coal allocation policies weren’t transparent, why did it bid and win those coal blocks? Say, for example, the Naini and New Patrapara coal blocks in Odisha.

Thirdly, why did SCCL neither apply for nor bid for coal blocks in Telangana? Isn’t it true that the SCCL could have easily outbid any other bidder for these coal blocks in Telangana and still come out the winner, as all the royalties from these coal blocks come to the state government itself? Wouldn’t nearly half of that royalty come from the Center’s share, thus transferring a part of the Center’s share of profits from SCCL to the Telangana government?

Fourthly, is it not true that the Telangana govt has been surreptitiously privatising the SCCL for all practical purposes? Hasn’t SCCL handed over the Tadicherla coal block to a private company? Hasn’t the SCCL cut down regular jobs by a third since 2014, from more than 60,000 to just about 40,000? Did it not replace them with outsourced workers – numbers tripled since 2014 – who receive one-third of the compensation regular employees earn, and receive no benefits, insurance or safety training?

I have no hope that the state government or TRS leadership will answer any of these questions. Still, they needed to be asked in Telangana’s interests.

(The author is BJP TS spokesperson)