HYDERABAD: Stating that there was no question of auctioning four coal blocks of Singareni Collieries Company Limited (SCCL) by the Union government as long as Chief Minister K Chandrasekhar Rao is alive and the TRS is in power in the State, Energy Minister G Jagdish Reddy told the Assembly on Friday that if need be, an agitation similar to the Telangana movement would be launched.
“If needed, we will build an agitation similar to that of the Telangana movement,” the Minter said, arguing that the Centre cannot privatise the coal blocks. Replying to a question raised by members Balka Suman, D Sridhar Babu, Bhatti Vikramarka Bhatti and others, the Minister said that the BJP is keen on selling profit-making companies like SCCL, LIC, Railways, Indian Airlines, power, gas, mines and telecom to private players.
The Centre has proposed to auction four coal blocks -- Kalyanikhani Block-6, Koyagudem Block-3, Sathupalli Block-3 and Shravanapalli of SCCL -- but the State government vehemently opposes it. The State government has requested the Centre to allocate these coal blocks to the SCCL.
The TRS and Congress members requested the House to adopt a unanimous resolution opposing privatisation of the four coal blocks and forward it to the Centre. They also demanded the State government take an all-party delegation to New Delhi to meet the Prime Minister and the Coal Minister in this regard.
He said that the Union government cannot privatise these coal blocks as they belong to the State. “The State’s share in SCCL is 51 per cent and the Union government holds 48.5 per cent share while private players hold the remaining 0.5 per cent,” the Minister said.
A tripartite agreement between the Union and State governments and the SCCL was made in 2017. Under this agreement, the Centre has the power to allot the coal mines to any of the government agencies. Similarly, the State government also has the right to give for mining to any agency. Also, both the Union and State governments can go for open auction.
Jagdish Reddy said that after MMDR Act 2015, SCCL had requested the Ministry of Coal for reservation of coal bearing areas of Telangana state (Godavari valley coalfields) under Se-ction 17A of the MMDR Act but the Ministry had not agreed.
Subsequently, to augment the coal production as per the directives of the Centre, some of the feasible coal blocks identified were requested by SCCL for allocation under Section 11A of MMDR Act 2015 duly informing the MoC that once these blocks were allocated to SCCL, production can be quickly ramped up.
However, the SCCL’s request was not considered, he reminded.