Hyderabad: Telangana industries minister D Sridhar Babu alleged that the BRS used the Singareni Collieries Company Limited (SCCL) used it like an ATM and ruined. He said the BRS leaders are unable to tolerate and are spreading false propaganda as the Congress govt brought transparency in the governance.Refuting the allegations of BRS working president KT Rama Rao on Singareni management and the state govt seeking a CBI probe, Sridhar Babu said the Congress govt put an end to exploitation and commission-based culture that existed in tenders during the BRS rule.“KTR and other party leaders who allege irregularities should produce evidence if they have any. It is not appropriate to indulge in politics through baseless allegations,” the minister said.“Was it not you (BRS), during ten years of KCR’s rule, failed to clear the dues owed to Singareni and pushed the organisation into a debt trap? Was it not the BRS govt that accumulated thousands of crores of rupees in outstanding dues in the name of power utilities? Have you already forgotten?,” he asked.Sridhar Babu said the BRS govt had built the Yadadri Thermal Power Plant like a patchwork structure solely for the sake of commissions, leaving it crippled by technical defects. It was Congress govt that had put Naini coal block into operation, he said.On the coal supply to YTPS, he said currently, G-9 grade coal is being produced from nine mines in Singareni. Over the past ten years, an average of approximately 4 million tonnes of G-9 coal was supplied annually to thermal power plants that had fuel supply agreements. So far this year, Singareni has supplied more than 25 million tonnes of coal to thermal power plants in Telangana as well as other states. Of this, only 1.20 million tonnes (12 lakh tonnes) was G-9 grade coal. Of that, 0.52 million tonnes was supplied to Telangana GENCO power plants alone.“The Fuel Supply Agreement to supply 14 million tonnes of G-9 coal annually to the Yadadri plant was made during BRS’s rule. That agreement was made by taking into consideration the increased production expected from new mines that Singareni would undertake in the future. Then why did those new mines not come up? Since Singareni did not participate in the coal block auctions conducted by the Central govt, the crucial Koyagudem-3 and Sattupalli-3 blocks were not secured by the company. As a result, Singareni lost the opportunity to produce nearly 10 million tonnes of quality coal annually,” the minister alleged.Increasing Singareni’s wealth and sharing it with the people — this is the objective of people’s government. No one can stop this through disinformation, he said.
