Bhatti: Centre Concealing Facts on Allotment of Tadicherla-2 Coal Block to Singareni

Hyderabad:Deputy Chief Minister Mallu Bhatti Vikramarka on Wednesday accused the Centre of concealing facts and misleading the public over the Tadicherla-2 Coal Block, asserting that the Centre had not made a fresh allocation to the Singareni Collieries Company Limited (SCCL), but had merely granted the long-pending prior approval for a mining lease.

Addressing a media conference at Praja Bhavan, Bhatti Vikramarka strongly objected to Union coal minister G. Kishan Reddy’s statement that the BJP-led government at the Centre had allotted the Tadicherla-2 block to SCCL. He clarified that the coal block had already been allotted to Singareni on September 16, 2013, by the then Congress-led UPA government following requests made by SCCL between 2010 and 2012. The allotment letter had specified that, since the block falls in a tribal area, mining could be undertaken only by a public sector undertaking and directed SCCL to expedite exploration and commence coal production.

Bhatti Vikramarka alleged that despite the allocation in 2013, the BJP government delayed granting the mandatory mining lease approval for more than a decade, preventing SCCL from beginning mining operations and causing substantial losses to the company. He said the Congress government had persistently pursued the issue after assuming office, with repeated representations to the Prime Minister and the Union Coal Ministry. He said he personally met the Union Coal Minister on March 7, 2024, and again on May 20, 2026, seeking prior approval for the mining lease, which was finally granted only now.

While welcoming the approval, Bhatti Vikramarka said presenting it as a fresh allocation was unfortunate and misleading. He also demanded that all coal blocks located in the Godavari Valley coalfields and areas covered under the 1/70 Tribal Land Regulation, including Koyagudem-3 Open Cast Block, the Open Cast Dip Side Mine in Manuguru and Sathupalli Open Cast-3 Block, should be allotted exclusively to SCCL. He alleged that auctioning such blocks to private companies violated tribal land protections and urged the Centre to allocate them directly to Singareni through the Government-to-Government mechanism.

SCCL chairman and managing director Dr Buddha Prakash Jyothi, directors Venkateswarlu and Gautam Potru, and senior officials were present at the media conference.