Telangana Dy CM Bhatti asks Centre to allot all Godavari Valley coal blocks to SCCL
Hyderabad, July 8 (TNT): Telangana Deputy Chief Minister Mallu Bhatti Vikramarka on Wednesday alleged that the Union Government was misleading the public on the allotment of the Tadicherla-2 Coal Block to the Singareni Collieries Company Limited (SCCL) and demanded that all coal blocks in the Godavari Valley coalfields be allocated to the state-owned miner.
Addressing a press conference at Mahatma Jyotiba Phule Praja Bhavan here, Bhatti said the Tadicherla-2 Coal Block was not a fresh allocation, as claimed by Union Coal Minister G. Kishan Reddy, but had already been allotted to SCCL in September 2013.
He said the Centre had only granted prior approval for the mining lease of the block after years of delay, following repeated representations by the Telangana government.
The Deputy Chief Minister said the mining lease approval was secured after the state government consistently pursued the matter with the Union Government.
He claimed the delay had prevented SCCL from commencing mining operations, resulting in significant losses to the company.
Bhatti welcomed the grant of the mining lease approval but criticised the Centre for portraying it as a fresh allocation.
Citing documents, he said the original allocation letter issued in 2013 had stipulated that the coal block, located in a tribal area, should be mined only by a public sector undertaking.
He further alleged that the Centre had auctioned coal blocks such as the Koyagudem-3 Open Cast Block near Yellandu and the Open Cast Dip Side Mine at Manuguru despite their location in Scheduled Tribal Areas governed by the 1/70 Tribal Land Regulation.
According to Bhatti, only the Central and State governments, through public sector undertakings such as SCCL, are legally authorised to undertake mining activities in such areas.
Demanding that all coal blocks in the Godavari Valley coalfields be allotted to SCCL, he said the Centre should withdraw coal blocks allotted to private companies, including the Koyagudem-3 Open Cast Block and Sathupalli Open Cast-3 Block, where mining operations have not commenced, and transfer them to Singareni.
He urged the Union Government to allocate coal blocks in the region directly to SCCL through the Government-to-Government (G2G) mechanism instead of auctioning them, taking into account the provisions of tribal land laws and local conditions.
SCCL Chairman and Managing Director Buddha Prakash Jyothi, Directors Venkateswarlu and Gautam Potru, and other senior officials were present at the media conference.
TNT TS
