HYDERABAD: Union Coal and Mines Minister G Kishan Reddy on Thursday asserted that the Union government has never exercised direct administrative control over the Singareni Collieries Company Limited (SCCL), irrespective of whether the country was under the Congress-led UPA or the NDA dispensation.
He said that Singareni has always functioned under the control of the Telangana government, despite the Centre holding a 49 per cent stake in the company.
Addressing a media conference at the BJP state office here, Kishan Reddy said that after the formation of Telangana, Singareni gradually slipped into financial distress due to rising operational costs and declining revenues. “Despite the Centre holding a 49 per cent stake, the company has been under the complete control of the state government for years. The Union government has no direct administrative powers over Singareni,” he said.
Explaining the governance structure, the Union minister said the Singareni Board consists of 10 directors, with a clear majority nominated by the state government, and all decisions are taken by the Board. He said the Union Coal Ministry does not receive day-to-day details related to tenders, contractual conditions or project-level decisions, and is not informed about tender norms framed by the company.
Kishan Reddy alleged that during the 10-year BRS rule, the family of former chief minister K Chandrasekhar Rao exercised total control over Singareni, reducing the Board to a mere formality. “From major tenders to small contracts, decisions were dictated politically, pushing the company into losses,” he alleged.
Referring to the Naini coal block issue, Kishan Reddy said that 17 companies had conducted site visits and the deadline for submission of tenders is January 29. He alleged that even during the BRS regime, tenders were floated and later cancelled midway after bids were received.
He said that the Naini coal block was allotted to the Telangana government in 2015 as a captive mine and should ideally have been developed by Singareni itself. However, the state government, he alleged, forced Singareni to state that it was incapable of executing the project and attempted to hand over mining operations to private players.
He alleged that unusual and restrictive conditions were introduced in tenders, including the mandatory requirement of “project authority-issued site visit certificates” instead of the generally accepted self-declared site visit certificates, thereby affecting transparency and competition.
He said that similar practices were followed in the case of the Tadicherla coal block, he alleged. The block, originally allotted to Singareni during the undivided Andhra Pradesh period, was later handed over to private entities after the formation of Telangana, he claimed.
BRS, Cong weakened SCCL with flawed decision-making
Kishan Reddy said both the BRS and Congress governments had, over the years, competed in weakening Singareni through what he described as political interference and flawed decision-making. This, he said, pushed the company into a severe financial crisis, at times even leading to delays in the payment of salaries to workers.
He pointed out that nearly 50 per cent of Singareni’s coal production is supplied to Telangana’s power utility TG Genco. However, dues payable by the state government have not been cleared either by the previous BRS regime or by the present Congress dispensation, he alleged.
This, he said, has seriously threatened the livelihood of people in nearly eight districts that depend on Singareni for employment and economic activity.
TG govt never disclosed Singareni’s cost structure
Comparing production costs, Kishan Reddy said that Western Coalfields spends about `1,736 per tonne of coal, while Singareni’s production cost stands at `2,878 per tonne, nearly 66 per cent higher. He said G11-grade coal is sold by Singareni at `4,088 per tonne, while the same grade is sold at `2,491 per tonne in Western Coalfields and at similarly lower rates in other Coal India subsidiaries. He alleged that the Telangana government has never transparently disclosed Singareni’s actual cost structures.