It is like putting up a smiling face and at the same frowning with the nose. The double standards of the BJP were exposed when Union minister Prahlad Joshi went on record in Parliament over the issue.
Stating that the Centre a minor stakeholder in the company and Telangana being a major stakeholder, the Centre cannot take a decision privatising the Singareni Collieries Company Limited (SCCL). However, they would go ahead with the auctioning of coal blocks in Telangana.
The minister justifying the auctioning of coal blocks said the money thus earned would be given to the respective states.
But the ruling TRS party leaders were asking the centre to reserve and give the coal blocks to SCCL instead of auctioning them allowing private parties to capture the sector slowly.
TRS party MP Ranjith Reddy sought to know how could the Centre take a unilateral decision in auctioning coal blocks without taking the state government into confidence.
Prime Minister Modi repeatedly told the people of Telangana at a public meeting at Ramagundam that the Centre will not privatise the SCCL and there is no such plan. But immediately, the centre announced the auctioning of coal blocks in the state which truly belong to the SCCL.
Thousands of workers and an equal number of people are indirectly dependent on the company. Any move to weaken the company would badly affect the lives of these people. It will also affect the power sector in several states including Telangana.
By Gollapudi Srinivasa Rao