Coal block auction: TGBKS to step up fight from July 1

Telangana Boggu Gani Karmika Sangham (TBGKS) leader Raji Reddy said the fight against the auction of coal blocks would be intensified in the State.

Hyderabad: Coming down heavy on the BJP government at the Centre and the Congress government in the State for working together against the interests of the State-owned Singareni Collieries Company Limited (SCCL), Telangana Boggu Gani Karmika Sangham (TBGKS) leader Raji Reddy said the fight against the auction of coal blocks would be intensified in the State.

Questioning the need for auction of coal blocks, he called it a step in direction of privatisation. Both the Centre and State were working in tandem to marginalise the role of the SCCL workforce, which had achieved 70,000 million tonnes of coal production to support the energy needs of the State and the nation.

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Demanding allotment of coal blocks to the SCCL without any auctioning as in the case of Coal India, he said the policies of the BJP government had a debilitating effect on the public sector undertakings all over the country. Appealing to the AITUC and the INTUC to extend their support to the fight against auction of coal blocks, he said the coal workers in the company would stage protests with black badges on July 1. The effigies of the Central government and State government would be burnt as part of the protest on July 3.

The coal miners would stage demonstrations in front of the offices of the General Managers of the areas concerned on July 6. A massive dharna programme would be organised at Godavarikhani on July 9. In the second phase of the protest, the coal workers would present memoranda to MLAs from the coal belt and a dharna would be organised at Indira Park in Hyderabad. Similar demonstrations would be organised at Jantar Mantar in New Delhi when the Parliament was in session.