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Expressing ire against the Centre's announcement of the auction of Singareni Collieries Company Limited (SCCL) coal mines, Telangana Industries and Commerce Minister KT Rama Rao on Thursday termed the actions as vengeful and a conspiracy to bring down the state which is flourishing.
Sharply criticizing the auctioning of coal mines, KTR said, "TRS will launch an agitation if the Centre moves ahead with its plan to auction Singareni Coal Mines." He said that the party always stands by the employees' protest against the conspiracy to privatize Singareni. He gave a call to Members of Parliament (MP) cutting across party lines to raise this crucial issue in Parliament. "Prime Minister Narendra Modi recently assured the people of the State that Singareni would not be privatized. However, the Centre has announced in Lok Sabha that four coal mines of SCCL will be auctioned," KTR said. Stating the economic significance of Singareni to Telangana, KTR said, "SCCL's privatization will adversely affect the state." The minister said that the SCCL stands top across the southern states in the generation of thermal power. The Telangana minister questioned the necessity behind the Centre's auctioning of Singareni which is generating profits and has the best Plant Load Factor (PLF) in the country. The Minister said that the Centre was conspiring to push Singareni into losses. He said that a large number of Lignite mines were allocated to Gujarat Mineral Development Corporation (GMDC) following the nomination method. KTR questioned the Centre as to why coal mines aren't allocated to Singareni as it allocated Lignite mines to GMDC. The minister alleged the Centre's bias in implementing one rule for Gujarat and another for Telangana. The minister has reminded that from the time Telangana was formed, repeated requests of people of the state and SCCL workers to allocate coal mines were not considered favourably by the Centre. (ANI)
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