HYDERABAD: Singareni Coal Mines Karmika Sangh (SCMKS-BMS) on Wednesday requested President Ram Nath Kovind to stop the privatisation of the Singareni Collieries Company Limited (SCCL). As part of its three-day agitation against the privatisation of SCCL, the SCMKS-BMS submitted a memorandum to the President through the SCCL chairman and managing director.
“The recent decision of the Centre to auction coal blocks, permitting commercial coal mining, leads to privatisation of the sector, which is not in the interest of the nation,” SCMKS-BMS president Kengarla Mallaiah and general secretary P Madhava Nayak stated in the memorandum. They said the allocation of coal blocks to corporates would lead to a few capitalists controlling the scarce natural resource. It would also lead to unauthorised exploration of the resource, like in the case of natural gas exploration, they said.
“The private sector does not concentrate on the welfare, safety and security of the employees. Cola mining by private entities would lead to more accidents. Private companies do not show interest in afforestation. The commercialisation of coal mining would lead to increase in coal prices and thereby higher power charges. The BMS strongly opposes the decision of the Central government to allow commercial mining,” the SCMKS-BMS said.
Leaders of the Singerani ruling party, TBGKS, also protested at the Srirampur division and submitted a memorandum to the management. The leaders said they would intensify their fight with the help of the national unions if their demand was neglected. Meanwhile, production in SCCL’s underground mines would begin from Thursday. The Covid-19 lockdown had brought the production to a halt at Srirampur, Mandamarri and Bellampelli in Mancherial.