HYDERABAD: Rebutting the allegations levelled by the TRS government that the BJP-led Union government was privatising coal mines, Union Minister for Tourism G Kishan Reddy on Saturday accused the Kalvakuntla family of trying to convert Singareni into a private company ever since the TRS (now BRS) came to power.
He said that the TRS government has allocated one of the coal blocks allocated to it to a private company.“Kalvakuntla family is running a vicious propaganda that the coal blocks are being privatised. This is despite the clarification issued by Prime Minister Narendra Modi during the Ramagundem public meeting that the Centre has no such intention,” Kishan Reddy told a press conference along with G Vivek at the BJP party office here.
“KCR family members have launched a false campaign as they are feeling insecure by the response BJP is garnering in the State,” he said.Kishan Reddy said that in 2015, when the Centre introduced the Coal Mines (Special Provision) Bill, 2015, “the family members of Chief Minister K Chandrasekhar Rao hailed Modi”. He said that the allocation of coal blocks was based on that legislation. “the Kalvakuntla family’s allegations of allocating coal blocks only to Gujarat are misleading,” Kishan Reddy said.
“The Centre has allocated three coal blocks - Naini coal mine, Odisha on August 23, 2015, to Singareni, Penagadapa on December 15, 2016 to Singareni and New Patrapada on August 31, 2015 to Telangana State Power Generation Company (TSPGC),” he said, asking, “Aren’t Singareni and TSPGC State-run companies?”“The Centre treats every State equally,” Kishan Reddy insisted.
He sought to know why the TRS government gave Tadicherla coal mine allotted to it to AMR, a private company, agreeing to procure coal at the rate of Rs 3,000 to Rs 4,000 per tonne.Stating that the Centre has taken a policy-level decision in June 2020 to call for an open auction of coal blocks following Supreme Court orders, Kishan Reddy said that the decision was taken to overcome the coal and electricity shortage. It was noticed that some coal blocks allocated to companies, including State-run companies, remain non-operative entities.