No move to privatise Singareni

PNS |Hyderabad

Union Minister Prahald Joshi has scotched allegations of privatization of Singareni Collieries Company Limited as “absolutely wrong and baseless”, saying SCCL is jointly owned by the Government of Telangana and the Government of India on 51:49 equity basis.

The Union Minister of Coal and Mines was responding to Member of Parliament Uttam Kumar Reddy’s statements on the alleged privatisation of SCCL and auction of coal blocks in Telangana in Parliament. He said:”Those who were involved in coal scam do not want a transparent system of auction”. The entire revenue through auctions was going to the State government, he added.

Congress MP Capt. N. Uttam Kumar Reddy on Wednesday demanded the Central government to stop the privatisation of four coal blocks in Telangana and allot the same to SSCL.

Raising the matter in the Lok Sabha as a ‘Matter of Urgent Public Importance’, Uttam Kumar Reddy said that the people of Telangana were strongly objecting to the auction of four coal blocks viz. Kalyan Khani Block-6, Koyagudem Block-3, Sathupalli Block-6, and Shravanapalli.  He said that the coal blocks were co-located with the existing coal mines of a 100-year-old public sector coal mining company SSCL. He said that Singareni was a profit-making public sector mining company that had been registering profits continuously for the last 20 years.

“In a very irrational and bizarre decision, the Government of India has announced the auction of the coal blocks adjacent to Singareni coal blocks. The SCCL now supplies coal to thermal power stations of Telangana, Andhra Pradesh, Maharashtra, Karnataka and Tamil Nadu. Instead of allocating these coal blocks to the SCCL, the Coal Ministry is putting them up for auction, which is an irrational and objectionable decision,” Uttam Kumar Reddy said in the Lok Sabha. The Congress MP demanded that the auction of coal blocks be canceled and they be allotted to SSCL.  

Prahalad Joshi said, “Since the Government of Telangana is the majority stakeholder with 51% stake, it is not possible for the Government of India to privatise SCCL.