Centre bolstering SCCL through coal block allocations: Kishan Reddy

Union Minister for Coal and Mines G. Kishan Reddy on Monday expressed concern over the declining revenues of the Singareni Collieries Company Limited (SCCL) and the steady fall in its workforce, which has dropped from nearly 70,000 employees to about 40,000 over the years. He noted that more than 30,000 contract workers also depend on the company for their livelihood.

Highlighting the Centre’s support for the SCCL, Mr. Reddy said the Modi government had taken a ‘special initiative’ to allocate the highly valuable Tadicherla-II coal block to the public sector company, which has the potential to sustain coal production for another 40 to 50 years and generate substantial additional revenue for SCCL. “The Tadicherla-II block is the only coal block in the country allotted to a public sector coal company without an auction,” he said.

The Union Minister was addressing coal miners on the first day of his two-day visit to coal mining areas in and around Kothagudem. State BJP president N. Ramchander Rao, party Legislature Party leader A. Maheshwar Reddy, Mahabubnagar MP D.K. Aruna and other party leaders accompanied him.

Mr. Reddy accused both the previous BRS government and the current Congress government of failing to clear dues owed to SCCL, which he claimed had accumulated to around ₹54,000 crore. He urged the State government to release the pending funds immediately, instead of limiting itself to meetings and assurances. “The funds due to the SCCL are not charity from the government. They are the company’s rightful earnings, generated through the hard work and sweat of its employees,” he said.

The Union Minister also said the Centre had earlier allotted the Naini coal block to SCCL in response to concerns over declining coal production and the shrinking workforce. He alleged that the previous BRS government failed to participate effectively in coal block auctions and had also created hurdles in securing the Naini block. However, the project was later fast-tracked to begin coal production, he claimed.

Mr. Kishan Reddy recalled that the Supreme Court had cancelled coal block allocations made under the previous Congress-led government in 2014 following findings related to the coal allocation scam, after which coal blocks were allotted through auctions.

Later, Mr. Ramchander Rao accused Chief Minister A. Revanth Reddy of blaming the Centre for the State government’s shortcomings. He alleged that SCCL’s financial difficulties stemmed from the “negligence, corruption and commission-based politics” of successive BRS and Congress governments, which, he said, had prioritised “personal interests over public welfare”.