The Telangana government has proposed to buy out the Centre’s equity in Singareni Collieries to make it fully a State-owned company.
The total equity of the company which was jointly owned by Telangana government (51 per cent) and the Centre (49 per cent) is Rs. 1,733 crore but the entity was not valued as it was not a listed company.
The proposal came from Chief Minister K. Chandrasekhar Rao himself at a meeting on Monday to review the performance of the company with its chairman and managing director Sutirtha Bhattacharya, former Chairman and Managing Director and now Principal Secretary to the Chief Minister S. Narsing Rao and other officials.
A release said the CM asked the officials to initiate steps to acquire the Centre’s equity as it was possible under the disinvestment policy. The officials took to CM’s notice that every year, the company paid a royalty of Rs. 1,200 crore to the Centre and Rs. 1,500 to 1,600 crore to the State. The annual turnover of the company was Rs. 12,300 crore.
Mr. Rao emphasised the need for opening more underground mines to generate jobs and expressed his desire to inaugurate a couple of them before Dasara. He asked about the reasons for reducing the workforce by the company though there were 30 to 40 prospective underground mining areas that could provide employment in a big way. Work on six mines should begin this year, he added.
source: The Hindu