The Labour Department has been taking all measures to conduct polls to elect a recognised trade union of the Singareni Collieries Company Limited (SCCL) and it would be held in the last week of July or the first week of August.
The four-year term of the current trade union – Telangana Boggu Ghani Karmika Sangham (TGBKS), affiliated to Telangana Rashtra Samithi (TRS) – expired in August 2016. The last elections to choose a recognised trade union were held on June 28, 2012.
Term expired
It has been ten months since the term of the present trade union expired and no election has been held so far. “We do not want any further delay in conducting the elections. We are collecting information regarding the electorate (coal miners) from the local miners, including underground mines, open cast projects and administration offices,” sources said.
The 2012 elections were fought on the issue of Telangana statehood by all the trade unions. Then, the TGBKS had promised to revive the dependent employment scheme which was shelved by the TDP government in 1998. It had also promised the miners of opening new mines to create employment and auxiliary units for employment generation in the coal belt region. But the revival of the dependent employment scheme has remained unfulfilled till now.
Though the TGBKS is worried over delay in the revival of the scheme as announced by Chief Minister K. Chandrasekhar Rao, it is confident of going for elections with the same promise. “We are committed to fulfill the promise of reviving the dependent employment scheme, but it was scuttled by the national trade unions which approached the court. We will explain to the coal miners the situation,” sources at the TBKS said.
On the other hand, the national trade unions – AITUC, INTUC, CITU and BMS – who have served a strike notice to the management demanding revival of the dependent employment scheme, are in dilemma whether to go for elections or wait till they find a solution for the employment scheme.
