Hyderabad: Chief Minister K. Chandrashekar Rao has urged Prime Minister Narendra Modi to stop auctioning of four coal blocks in Singareni as was proposed by the Union Coal Ministry. Notably, workers unions in Singareni Collieries have given the call for a 3-day strike from Thursday, opposing the Centre’s move to auction the four coal blocks.
The Chief Minister wrote a letter to the Prime Minister on Wednesday. He said the collieries has been producing 65 million tonnes of coal every year and meeting the needs of thermal power plants in Telangana state, AP, Maharashtra, Karnataka and Tamil Nadu.
After the bifurcation of the state, the maximum demand for power in Telangana state was 5,661 MW in 2014. By March 2021, it went up to 13,688 MW and it is essential to ensure uninterrupted supply of coal for the power generation plants, the Chief Minister said.
Based on the Singareni needs, the state government had issued several mining licences, which the Centre is aware of, and the Union coal ministry also gave its green signal for these, Rao noted.
The Chief Minister urged the Prime Minister to advise the Union coal ministry to stop the auction of JBROC-3, Sravanpally OC, Koya Gudem OC-3 and KK-6 UG Block under the Union ministry’s Trench 13, as it would “adversely impact” the needs under Singareni jurisdiction for coal. He also urged the PM to allocate these blocks to the Singareni Collieries.
