Chief Minister K. Chandrasekhar Rao announcing sops for the coal miners of the Singareni Collieries Company Limited (SCCL) on the eve of elections to recognized trade union had given a fillip to the election campaign by the Telangana Boggu Karmika Sangham (TGBKS) affiliated to the ruling TRS.
The Chief Minister’s assurance on the revival of dependent employment scheme on compassionate grounds rekindled the hopes of the TGBKS. The Chief Minister had also announced removal of professional tax for the coal miners and assured to that he would bring pressure on the Centre to exempt them from paying Income Tax.
The CM’s assurance on providing interest free loans up to ₹6 lakh to the coal miners for the construction of houses had further boosted the TGBKS, which is campaigning about the “own your house scheme” during electioneering. Since the issuance of election notification for trade union elections, the TGBKS was worried about convincing the coal miners about the long-felt demand of revival of dependent employment scheme.
Leaders of national trade unions dismissed CM’s statement saying there is nothing new. He only reiterated the continuation of medical unfit scheme to provide employment to the wards of coal miners, which already exists in the Singareni. The increase of bonus is also nothing new as the workers have increased the coal production and the government is not doing any favour by increasing the bonus percentage, they stated.
AITUC president Y. Gattaiah alleged that the state government was making all false promises to lure the miners as the TGBKS was scared of losing the elections. The announcement of bonus and sops on the eve of elections was aimed only to gain mileage in the elections.
An INTUC leader found fault with the TRS government for not talking about the wage revision for the coal miners which was pending which was pending since last one-and-a-half years. The victory of regional trade union TGBKS would not solve the miners problems as they were not allowed to attend the Joint Bipartite Committee for Coal Industry (JBCCI) of Coal India Limited, he maintained.
