The Hindu : Singareni miners' fears genuine: Cong.

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Saturday, Feb 01, 2003

Southern States

Southern States - Andhra Pradesh

Singareni miners' fears genuine: Cong.

By Our Special Correspondent

HYDERABAD Jan. 31. The Congress on Friday lashed out at the State Government for its "failure'' in resolving the Singareni miners strike while accusing it of being dictatorial in dealing with the strike.

It also decided to send delegations of its leaders to Godavarikhani and Kothagudem to express solidarity with the striking workers and protest the arrests of two of its MLAs -- D. Sreedhar and V. Venkateswar Rao.

Addressing press conferences separately, G. Venkataswamy, former Union Minister and B. Venkateswar, D. Srinivas, G. Chinna Reddy and M. Budha Prasad said the Government's deeds were contrary to its proclamations that it would not privatise the collieries.

The deployment of "Surface Miners'' and the contract system ushered in was the root cause of the unrest in the mines now leading to Rs. 13-crore loss a day. The fear of the miners was genuine as the privatisation process had already begun. They said transport, sanitary and canteen services had already been privatised in the collieries.

Under the pretext of improving the quality of coal, the Government was planning to begin the privatisation of the mining process, they said. The contribution of the miners in bringing the company back into profits from the brink of closure due to losses had been tremendous. Their strike now was to protect the company but not to harm its interests and hence justified.

They said the Government was trying to distort facts and refusing to concede the demands of the miners. The workers had a constitutional right to make the demands and go on strike in case the management refused to yield and as such, using force against the strike was uncalled for.

The Congress leaders said police were raiding the houses of the striking trade union leaders and threatening the inmates to demoralise the workforce. Two Congress MLAs had been picked up by the police and the peaceful agitation was being resisted with force.

If the Government was really sincere in not privatising the mines, it should immediately withdraw the contract system and convince the workers, they demanded. Pointing out that the mines were the biggest natural assets of the State contributing nothing less than Rs. 500 crores to the exchequer every year, they asked the Government to have a rethink on its policy.

The Government must also keep in mind the crisis of the power sector in allowing the strike to continue, they said. Thermal power was the only one the State was left with now and the future did not hold any better promise. The loss of production was estimated at Rs. 150 crores in the 11 days and its impact on power generation would not be insignificant.

If needed, the Singareni Collieries Company Limited itself could deploy the "Surface Miners'' by buying them as the machine cost was just Rs. 5 crores. The open cast mines of Sattupalli, Cherla, Pudukudicherla and Anisettipalli were going to be the target of the Government for privatisation, they said.

They accused the Chief Minister of treating the issue as a prestige matter and not resolving it despite demands from so many quarters.

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Singareni miners' fears genuine: Cong.