AITUC stages protest at SCCL head office, warns of a strike if demands are not met

AITUC-affiliated Singareni workers laid siege to the SCCL head office in Kothagudem, demanding release of Rs 50,000 crore dues and action on key issues. Leaders warned of intensified protests and a possible strike if demands remain unmet

Kothagudem: A large number of cadres of AITUC-affiliated Singareni Collieries Workers Union laid siege to the SCCL head office here on Monday as part of its ‘Save Singareni Poru Jatha’.

Hundreds of workers and union activists took out a massive rally and staged a dharna at the head office main entrance. Following heated arguments between the leaders and the police, CPI National Control Commission chairman K. Narayana, district secretary SK Sabir Pasha, along with union leader V Seetharamaiah and others, were detained and shifted to the one-town police station.

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Narayana demanded that the State government immediately release Rs 50,000 crore dues owed to the SCCL. Chief Minister A Revanth Reddy must respond to the matter and provide a clear timeline regarding the release of funds.

The company management’s negligence in opening new mines poses a threat to the very survival of the SCCL. The company was playing with the lives of the workers by suspending the Medical Board under the pretext of an ACB inquiry, he alleged.

Narayana accused the Central and State governments of plundering the wealth of Singareni and objected to excessive political interference in the company’s affairs. If the Congress government fails to fulfil the promises made to workers in the last elections, intense protests would be organised in the days to come, he said.

Sabir Pasha asserted that if the Congress party secured votes in the Singareni region, it was due to the support of the Singareni workers, and the party they had helped come to power was now betraying their trust.

He described a statement by Deputy Chief Minister Bhatti Vikramarka claiming that the Medical Board was causing massive financial losses to Singareni as ‘atrocious’. In establishing new mines, the dominance of private entities should be put to an end, and coal production has to be carried out exclusively by Singareni’s workforce.

He also demanded that the Medical Board should be convened according to the traditional, established procedures. If the demands were not met, the union would call for a strike across the entire Singareni region.