Singareni Coal Fields the Most Visible Example of Seema Andhra Exploitation

The Singareni Coal Fields of Telangana spread across the four districts of Karimnagar, Adilabad, Khammam and Warangal supply coal for most of the thermal power stations in S. India. And SCCL (Singareni Collieries Company Limited), the only Navaratna in the Telangana region. There are close to 70,000 workers in the SCCL coal mines across the four districts and in the current financial year it will contribute around Rs.400 crore to the State exchequer. Yet, the Singareni story is also marred by the rampant exploitation, deprivation and selective discrimination that is the hall mark of all Government and PSU’s in the Telangana region.

In the last two decades successive Andhra and Rayalseema Governments have conspired to wrest away this jewel of Telangana. There have been myriad attempts at this in the last 50 years which were foiled by the vigilance of the people and the miners. The latest attempt at this was made just a few months ago, when the Tadicherla coal mines in Karimnagar, part of the Singareni Collieries geological area, were all but sold off to ETA-ECCI-PLR, Joint Venture, a company promoted by Kadapa MP Y. S. Jaganmohan Reddy and the AP state forest minister P. Ramachandra Reddy, both hailing from Seemandhra region

The Union coal ministry had allotted the Tadicherla block-1, to APGenco, a Seema Andhra infested, Government turned quasi Private Co, by N. Chandrababu Naidu during his reign as the CM of AP, to meet the coal requirements of Kakatiya Thermal Power Station at Bhoopalpally in Warangal district. SCCL, which by law and economic efficiencies should have been awarded the contract for mining and supply of this coal to APGenco, was forced to opt out of the negotiations and ETA-ECCI-PLR led JV awarded the bid amounting to a whopping Rs.5000 crore for the mining and supply of coal at twice the price, that SCCL charges.

This perfidious act would have hurt Telangana in two ways, one we would have been cheated out of our natural resources today and a few years later, APGenco, would have prepared a report on the financial in viability of continuing with the Bhoopalpally Power Project, and forced its shut down, resulting in loss of livelihood and power supply to the people of Warangal. Had it not been for the current situation, these mines would now be the private property of these Seema Andhra bandits in khadi.

Not only this, there is rampant discrimination against the locals, in these mines, while all the underground miners belong to the Telangana region, and bear the risk of working in hazardous conditions, the plum and safe jobs right from the lowest of the clerical post to the top cadre are occupied by non-locals, ie people from the Seemandhra region. If you had just one word to describe the plunder and injustice meted out to Telangana people in Andhra Pradesh, the answer would be Singareni.


Jai Telangana. Jai Hind