Will not let Centre privatise Singareni mines: KTR

HYDERABAD: Attacking Telangana BJP Leader Etela Rajender for not recommending to prevent the auctioning of Singareni Collieries Company Limited (SSCL) mines to the Centre, Telangana IT and Industries Minister K T Rama Rao said that the Centre was proposing to privatise the company. He said that the Telangana Government would protest against the privatisation of the SSCL.

“The Centre’s propaganda, of not giving projects to companies, making them bankrupt and then selling it to private individuals, will not work with the SSCL. We will protect it at any costs” KTR said.

KTR asked why the Central Government was forcing the States to import coal when Singareni was producing and selling the coal at a much lower price. He asserted that the SSCL had won six awards for achieving high Plant Load Factor (PLF). KTR said that Singareni should have been given the four blocks, but instead, the Centre gave it to Gujarat, despite Chief Minister KCR writing a letter to Prime Minister Narendra Modi.

"The Centre wrote to all Discoms not to buy coal from Singareni and instead use imported coal for four times the actual cost. To kill a dog, they call it mad. They first disconnect the oxygen supply and then declare the patient sick. This is the approach of the BJP towards public sector units. The Centre is promoting the cronies of the BJP," he alleged.

The IT Minister, who also holds the Mining and Industries portfolio, said that the Visakha Steel Plant was also bade in a very wrongful manner, where the company was not given any orders and sold off at a very low rate. “The Telangana Government would not let Singareni be bade like the Visakha Steel Plant or any other industry which was sold to private individuals, more so, friends of the Prime Minister,” KTR said.