Singareni Strike: Singareni Collieries Company Limited (SCCL) workers continued their strike for the third day at all mines. It may be mentioned here that this is part of a three-day strike launched to protest against Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) led Union government’s decision to auction four coal blocks for commercial mining.
Singareni Strike
The workers of the State – Owned SCCL are on strike in protest against the Union Coal Ministry’s decision to auction four coal blocks in the state for commercial mining along with others across the country. They are also demanding that the four coal blocks should be allocated to the company, among others.
Already ruling Telangana Rastra Samiti (TRS) has extended its support for the striking workers. TRS and the state government have been vociferous about the BJP-led centre taking the decision to privatise the state mines. Meanwhile, all non-BJP parties are supporting the Union government’s move. Interestingly everyone is blaming each other along with BJP for the present situation.
According to official sources, about 23,000 workers are participating in the strike, while only 3,500 have been attending to essential duties for the last two days. According to unconfirmed estimates, the loss of coal production has been pegged at about 3 lakh tonnes so far.
Coal production in Ramagundam region was halted on Friday as well when the members of workers’ unions such as CITU, INTUC, AITUC, HMS and BMS took part in the strike raising slogans such as “Save Singareni”.
The leaders of the Joint Action Committee of the striking workers are likely to meet the officials of the Union Coal Ministry in Delhi on December 15 for discussions.
Meanwhile the political blame game as started, Telangana Pradesh Congress Committee (TPCC) president A Revanth Reddy, said, “TRS MPs did not utter a single word about SCCL privatisation during the ongoing winter session of Parliament. Both TRS and BJP governments are hand-in-glove to sell away SCCL to private parties. Despite being majority shareholder in SCCL, KCR government did not question the Union government’s decision and his recent letter to PM was just an eye-wash.”