Telangana Poru Yatra entered into Karimnagar district on the twelveth day. The day started with Kishan Reddy’s visit to the 5th incline coal mine at GodavariKhani. He went into the incline all the way down and observed the working conditions of the coal mine workers there.
Speaking to the Singareni miners, he said that Government is trying to privatize the coal mines for no reason. Previously there used to be about 1,16,000 employees working in the Singareni Colleiries in the 4 districts of Telagnana. Now it has come down to 65,000 employees just because the Government is encouraging open cast mining and trying to privatize the mines. He blamed the Government that they are trying to reduce the employees to 32,000 by the year 2020. He said that so far only 900 million tonnes of coal was extracted and there is still a scope for 20XX million tones and so there is no need to privatize and go for open cast mining. With open cast mining, huge displacement of people and wastage of land is happening thereby threatening the lives of lakhs of people in the region, he said.
He also said that the income tax paid by all the employees in the 4 districts of Singareni Collaries amounts to Rs.150 crores. Since these employees are working against the natural working conditions, they can be exempted from paying income tax, he said. He promised that BJP would fight for their genuine causes like open cast mining and also for exemption from income tax etc.
There was a huge gathering at Manthani where the first meeting of the day was held. Ramakrishna Reddy, the Vice President of the BJP was also present at the meeting. Kishan Reddy while speaking on the occasion said that it is in this Karimnagar district that Sonia has promised the state of Telangana during 2004 elections campaign. He said that it is this fake Gandhi, who was responsible for all this mess on the issue of Telangana.
Later in the day, Kishan Reddy addressed huge gatherings at Sentinary Colony, Peddapalli, Dharmaram, Jagityal. Many students, youth and other sections of the society attended the meetings in huge numbers. Kishan Reddy reiterated that BJP will try by all means to get the due share of waters of SRSP to the district.