Telangana Wants To Buy Out Centre’s Stake To Wholly Own Singareni

The Telangana government is keen to acquire 51 per cent stake owned by the central government in Singareni Collieries Company Ltd (SCCL). Telangana, just like some other states, is reeling under severe coal shortage which it needs to overcome to be self-reliant in power in next 3 years, as per its plans. Owning the company wholly would mean Telangana gets full control over the coal it produces, which it can use for it’s own needs.

Telangana government is exploring the possibilities of purchasing the entire shareholding of the Union government in the Singareni Collieries Company Limited (SCCL) to make it totally a state owned company. Chief minister,KCR, directed the officials to provide him full details in this regard to take a final decision, according to an official press release. At present, the state government holds 51% share in the coal mining company and the remaining 49% of the stake is held by the Centre.

While reviewing the activities of SCCL on Monday, KCR is stated to have pointed out that under the current disinvestment policy the Centre, “the possibilities of owning the company are very bright”. The review meeting is attended by Sri. Sutirtha Bhattacharya, Chairman and Managing Director Singareni Collieries; Sri. D. Prabhakar Rao, CMD Telangana GENCO; Sri. S. Narsing Rao, Prl. Secretary to Chief Minister; Sri. Ramesh Kumar, Director Operations Singareni Collieries; Sri. Raji Reddy, Union Leader and General Secy.Director Operations set the agenda and made a presentation. The Chief Minister enquired about coal reserves, open cast mining, ground water mining, air-conditioning of the works, work force, leave structure and holiday structure of employees, staffing structure, mechanization etc.

Besides those located in Telangana, SCCL currently supplies coal to various thermal power plants based in Andhra Pradesh. Supply of coal to these projects could be a contentious issue in future if the company is completely owned by the Telangana government. Already, the governments of the two states were at loggerheads over sharing of power.

During the meeting, the press release stated, SCCL officials brought to the notice of the chief minister that about Rs 1200 crore of royalty was being paid to the Union government every year, while royalty paid to the state government ranged from Rs 1500 to Rs 1600 crore. The total turnover of the company is about Rs 12,300 crore.

The chief minister is also stated to have directed SCCL officials to protect the assets of the company outside Telangana like the lands in Kondapally of Krishna District, Visakhapatnam and Vijayawada. He said the details of assets have to be worked out and the lands are to be fenced.

The chief minister suggested working out strategies to meet the growing demands of coal and said that SCCL should also explore the possibilities of mining outside the state and country. He said that a 10-member delegation headed by the company’s chairman and managing director, Suthirtha Bhattacharya, should go to countries like Australia, South Africa, Mozambique and Indonesia to explore coal rich areas and submit a report. He also wanted SCCL to have a corporate look and the new face of the company should be unique.