BRS Calls For Protest During PM Modi's Visit Over Centre's Bid To 'Privatise' Singareni Mines

Minister KT Rama Rao called for a 'maha dharna' and accused the Central government of making 'veiled attempts' to privatise the state-owned Singareni Collieries Company Limited.

Telangana's ruling BRS party has given a call for protest during Prime Minister Narendra Modi's visit to the state on Saturday over the Centre’s alleged attempt to privatise Singareni mines.

BRS working president and Telangana IT minister KT Rama Rao called for a 'maha dharna' and accused the Central government of making 'veiled attempts' to privatise the state-owned Singareni Collieries Company Limited (SCCL). 

He alleged that the Centre was conspiring to undermine CM K Chandrashekar Rao's intention of giving free electricity to farmers. He urged the party workers to stage protests at Kothagudem, Mancherial, and Ramagundam in the state on April 8. 

In a statement, KTR demanded that the Centre should allocate mines to the SCCL without auctioning. He also sought the cancelation of the auction process, scheduled to be conducted from March 29 to May 30.

SCCL is a coal mining company jointly owned by the Governments of Telangana and India on a 51:49 equity basis.

The minister pointed out that Gujarat Mineral Development Corporation (GMDC) was given a significant number of lignite mines through the nomination method. However, KTR claimed that the Centre did not take into account the same request to assign mines to SCCL.

Earlier, KT Rama Rao said that the BRS party was opposed to the Union Government's move to privatise the Visakhapatnam Steel Plant (VSP) and extended support to steel plant workers who were against the disinvestment move.

He said it was Narendra Modi government’s "evil plans" to sell off the VSP to corporate companies and mentioned the reasons for the steel plant's losses, and ways in which the plant could be revived.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi is scheduled to visit Telangana on Saturday to flag off a Vande Bharat train between Secunderabad and Tirupati. 

The PM will inaugurate and lay the foundation stones for multiple projects. He will lay the foundation stone for the redevelopment of the Secunderabad Railway Station. The redevelopment of the railway station is to be done at a cost of Rs 720 crore.

(With inputs from ABP Desam — It is a Telugu platform of ABP News. For more news, commentary and latest happenings from two Telugu states, follow https://telugu.abplive.com//amp)