Tension in Ramagundam as police block Harish Rao’s visit to Coal Handling Plant

BRS activists clashed with police in Godavarikhani after Siddipet MLA T Harish Rao was stopped from visiting the Coal Handling Plant. Rao alleged discrepancies in Singareni coal stock figures, claiming that actual availability was far lower than reported.

Peddapalli: BRS activists entered into an argument with the police as the latter refused to allow the party senior leader and Siddipet MLA T Harish Rao to visit the Coal Handling Plant (CHP) in Godavarikhani.

Harish Rao, who visited the Ramagundam coal belt area to take part in Singareni Parirakshna Sadassu held in Godavarikhani on Sunday, tried to visit CHP.

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In the wake of the BRS working president KT Rama Rao’s allegation that 40 lakh tonnes of coal went missing, Harish Rao tried to visit CHP to know the coal stocks at the field level.

However, police prevented them when Harish Rao along with other MLAs Gangula Kamalakar and Padi Kaushik Reddy, former legislators Koppula Eashwar, D Manohar Reddy, Korukanti Chander, Putta Madhu and others tried to enter into CHP premises.

Enraged over the police attitude, party leaders and activists staged protest demonstrations and entered arguments with them. In the wake of Harish Rao’s visit, police deployed a huge force at CHP.

Interacting with the press later, Harish Rao said that he was not allowed to visit CHP since there was no coal stock. According to Singareni records, there was 7 lakh tonnes of coal stock in Ramagundam area. However, not even 50,000 tonnes of coal was available, he said.

In a statement released on Saturday, Singareni informed that 26 lakh tonnes of coal was available across the company. If it was true, 5 to 6 lakh tonnes of coal should be there in Ramagundam. However, that much of coal was not there in the area, he said. The BRS leaders and activists returned back without visiting CHP.