T-Govt plans to buy out Central share in Singareni

The Government of Telangana is exploring the possibilities of paying the Government of India shares in the Singareni Collieries Company to make it totally a Telangana State owned company.

Chief Minister K Chandrashekar Rao reviewing the activities of Singareni Collieries Company directed the officials to initiate steps in this regard. He said under the Government of India's disinvestment policy the possibilities of owning the company are very bright. The review meeting is attended by Sutirtha Bhattacharya, Chairman and Managing Director Singareni Collieries; D. Prabhakar Rao, CMD Telangana GENCO; S. Narsing Rao, Prl. Secretary to Chief Minister; Ramesh Kumar, Director Operations Singareni Collieries; Raji Reddy, Union Leader and General Secy.

The Director Operations set the agenda and made a presentation. The Chief Minister enquired about coal reserves, open cast mining, ground water mining, air-conditioning of the works, work force, leave structure and holiday structure of employees, staffing structure, mechanization etc.,

The Chief Minister enquired the reasons for reducing the work force in some areas. He said that, there are about 30 to 40 prospective under ground mining areas and as such when people are prepared to work underground the possibilities of opening underground mines to be worked out. The Chief Minister said that he would inaugurate one or two under ground mines before Dusserah. The Singareni Collieries Company should also begin the process of starting six more underground mines projects to create more employment, this year.

The Singareni Collieries officers brought to the notice of the Chief Minister that about Rs.1200 crore  of royalty is paid to the Government of India every year besides paying between Rs.1500 to Rs.1600 crores to Telangana government. The total turnover of the company is about Rs.12,300 crores. KCR directed the Singareni Collieries officials to protect the assets of the company outside Telangana like the lands in Kondapally of Krishna District, Vizag and Vijayawada. He said the details of assets are to be worked out and the lands are to be fenced. The Krishna Collector to be contacted to demarcate the boundaries of land in Kondapally.

The Chief Minister enquired about air pollution and water pollution control measures and pointed out lapses. He suggested to go for large scale tree plantation of about one crore saplings in and around the mining areas. The Chief Minister reviewed the Thermal Power Projects of Singareni. The CMD assured the Chief Minister that, both the power plants of 600MW each initiated by them will be ready by 15th Nov.2015.

Chandrasekhar Rao suggested to workout strategies to meet the growing demands of coal and said that Singareni Company should explore the possibilities of mining outside the State and Country. He said that they should go to countries like Australia, South Africa, Mozambique, Indonesia etc and find out the places of rich coal fields and submit a report.

The Chief Minister instructed that a 10 member delegation comprising of CMD Singareni Collieries, Prl. Secy. to CM other officials, Union delegates to visit countries for this purpose. He said that the Singareni Collieries should have a corporate look, New face-New look and to be unique. The Chief Minister also said Singareni Collieries should become the biggest supplier of coal in the Globe.

KCR said that Singareni as a reputed company will go and bid for mining abroad to make it more proud. Singareni existence outside the State and Country will make it a privileged Institution. He said the Singareni being the oldest coal company of the world shall do mining outside the country and get International reputation. The Chief Minister said that, this will provide large employment opportunities also.

Touching upon the subject of Power the Chief Minister said it is mandatory for NTPC to produce 4000MW of dedicated power for Telangana which requires 1500 acres of land of Singareni Collieries at Ramagundam. Similarly, Telangana GENCO requires 400 acres of land in Ramagundam and 2000 acres of land at Manuguru. The Chief Minister instructed the Singareni Officials to initiate steps to allot this land.

The Chief Minister also said that the issues of dependant employment, dismissed employment need to be addressed by the management. He said that as far as Singareni Collieries Company is concerned there shall be no discrimination between Andhra and Telangana employees.

He said it is a company by itself and employees are from all over the country and is a Singareni family. The Chief Minister said that Health of Singareni workers to be taken care of and totally streamlined. He suggested that the company to start four super specialty hospitals in four districts covered by the Singareni mining namely Khammam, Warangal, Adilabad and Karimnagar. He also said that by making use of the four super specialty hospitals the company can also run a Medical College in due course.

The Chief Minister asked the CMD Singareni Collieries to give the Singareni Collieries employees a special Telangana increment and treat the absence during the 'Sakala Janula Samme' as leave. He also told the officials to show remarkable change in the next three months in the welfare areas of employees like improving hygienic conditions, facilities and canteen provisions etc.,