SCCL workers union to stage protest on Tuesday

Stir against Centre’s move to e-auction four coal blocks in State

Khammam, Telangana, 23/10/2021: The view of open cast coal mine in Kothagudem of Bhadradri Kothagudem district . The unions affiliated to the national trade unions including the CITU and the AITUC are up in arms against the Centres decision to include four coal blocks of the coal belt region in the State in the list of commercial coal mine auction. The unions, operating in the coal belt region, are gearing up to launch an agitation demading removal of the four coal blocks from the auction list and handover them to the State-owned SCCL for excavation of coal. G N Rao / The Hindu

The Singareni Collieries Workers Union (SCWU), affiliated to the AITUC, has called for dharnas in front of all the coal mines of the Singareni Collieries Company Limited (SCCL) on October 26 in protest against the Centre’s "move" to e-auction four coal blocks in the State for commercial coal mining.

The SCWU has launched a campaign to enlist support of the workforce for a sustained agitation to press for the removal of the four coal blocks — Sattupalli Block-III, Koyagudem Block-III, Shravanapalli and Kalyan Khani Block-6 — from the auction list reportedly released by the Coal Ministry in the second week of this month.

The SCWU organised gate meetings at various coal mines, including the PVK 5 incline mine in Kothagudem region, in the past two days to mobilise support for the series of protests it planned to hold across the coal belt region demanding handing over the four coal blocks to the State-owned SCCL for mining.

The Centre’s move to allocate the four coal blocks in the State for commercial coal mining is arbitrary and bound to prove detrimental to the growth of the State-owned SCCL, leading to socio-economic repercussions, said SCWU general secretary Vasireddy Seetharamaiah.

“The government-owned SCCL, the only coal producing company in the entire south India, spent huge amounts of about ₹60 crore on coal exploration activities in the four coal blocks,” he told The Hindu .

The Centre should immediately delist the four coal blocks from the auction list and allow the State-owned SCCL to take up coal mining in those blocks to strengthen the government coal mining company and safeguard the interests of the workforce, he insisted.

We have invited all other trade unions operating in the Singareni coal fields for a meeting slated to be held in Godavarikhani town on October 31 to decide the next course of action to press for removal of the four coal blocks from the auction list, Mr Seetharamaiah said.

SCWU honorary president and former Kothagudem MLA Kunamneni Sambasiva Rao and other senior leaders will address the meeting.