Singareni bonus: Coal miners resent truncated share of profit as bonus

Responding to the State government's announcement that Rs 796 crore would be given as Dasara bonus for the staff and workers of the SCCL for the financial year 2023-24, a majority of coal miners expressed disappointment

Mancherial: Coal miners of the Singareni Collieries Company Limited (SCCL) here have expressed resent over the Congress government deviating from practice and announcing a Dasara bonus for them from a truncated amount of the company’s profits. They said the Rs.796 crore announced for them was 33 percent of Rs.2,412 crore, which remained after the SCCL decided to set aside Rs.2,289 crore for expansion plans from the overall profit of Rs.4,701 crore. Till last year, the practice was to announce 33 percent of the overall profit, they said.

Responding to the State government’s announcement on Friday that Rs 796 crore would be given as Dasara bonus for the staff and workers of the SCCL for the financial year 2023-24, a majority of coal miners expressed disappointment after realizing that their share, which would come up to around 16 percent of the total profit of the SCCL as against 32 percent of share in 2022-23 financial year. They regretted that the share of profits actually declined by 16 percent when compared to the previous year even as earnings of the SCCL went up by 112 percent in this fiscal year.

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On Saturday, when INTUC leaders including Pulluri Laxman visited a mine in Kasipet mandal, a group of coal miners confronted them, asking why Rs.2,289 crore was set aside for expansion plans. The staff and workers deserve Rs 1,550 crore which makes 33 percent of Rs 4,701 crore, they said, asking why the bonus was being given from the truncated amount of Rs 2,412 crore.

The leaders of the trade union were clueless when the miners raised so many questions about the dip in share of profits. They could not provide answers to the questions of the miners and left the mines without talking about the bonus at the worksites of the staff and employees of the SCCL.

The coal miners felt that they would have got Rs.4 lakh as bonus this time if Rs.2,289 crore was not allocated for expansion. Stating that they were cheated by the Congress government, they said the miners would teach a lesson to the government for duping them by extending a lower bonus than previous years.