As the campaigning for the October 5 election to the Singareni Collieries Company Limited (SCCL)’s recognised trade union is all set to end on Tuesday, the unresolved issues of coal miners such as housing facility have occupied the centre stage in the last lap of the campaign.
The TRS affiliated Telangana Boggu Gani Karmika Sangham (TBGKS) is harping on a slew of promises made by Chief Minister K. Chandrasekhar Rao, including the assurance to extend ₹6 lakh interest-free housing loan to the coal workers.
The AITUC-affiliated Singareni Collieries Workers Union (SCWU) is banking on the collective strength of the AITUC, INTUC and TNTUC, which joined hands to defeat the TBGKS at the hustings. The other major unions in the fray have also intensified their electioneering in all the four areas of the Kothagudem region spanning four Assembly and two Lok Sabha constituencies in Bhadradri-Kothagudem and Khammam districts.
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On the dependent employment scheme, one of the major poll promise made by the TBGKS in the last election held in 2012, the union is reiterating its resolve to implement an employment scheme under a new nomenclature in compliance with the constitutional provisions.
Strongly contesting the TBGKS’s claims, the SCWU is insisting that the ruling party backed union had failed to deliver on its major pre-poll promises.
The TBGKS is trying to cover up its utter failure to implement the housing facility, jobs to the eligible dependants of the Singareni coal miners, and other promises made by it prior to 2012 union elections, SCWU Central Committee member and CPI district secretary of the CPI Bhadradri-Kothagudem district unit Sabir Pasha said.
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The TBGKS is making desperate attempts to win the election by making hollow promises, he charged, alleging that the ruling party had failed to pursue the long pending demand of coal miners for Income Tax exemption until now.
“Just ahead of elections, the persons at the helm of affairs are showering sops with an eye on votes,” he said and demanded the age limit for the jobs recently notified by the SCCL be increased.