Hyderabad: The Central government cannot privatize Singareni Collieries Company Limited (SCCL), according to Energy Minister G Jagdish Reddy, because the State government owns 51 per cent of the company.

"If the Centre, however, has any such plans, Chief Minister K Chandrashekhar Rao will launch a massive agitation to stall them," he said during question hour in the State Assembly here.

Several TRS legislators, including Balka Suman, Gandra Venkata Ramana Reddy, Sandra Venkata Veeraiah, and others, expressed concern about the centre's decision to auction four coal blocks in Singareni's jurisdiction.

If SCCL is privatized, TRS MLA Korukanti Chander claims there will be no employment reservations for SC, ST, or BCs. The TRS MLAs also wanted to know what steps the state government is taking to defend SCCL.

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In response, the Minister stated that the union Coal Ministry had sought tenders for an open auction of four coal blocks in the Singareni boundaries, namely Kalyan Khani Block-VI, Koyagudem Block-III, Sathupalli Block-III, and Shravanpalli.

He explained that this came after SCCL management wrote to the Central government and the Chief Minister individually requesting Prime Minister Narendra Modi to reserve the coal blocks for SCCL.

"Interestingly, the central government allotted a few blocks to the state-owned company in Gujarat without any conditions, but is refusing to honour the Telangana government’s appeal to allocate coal blocks to Singareni within its limits," Jagadish Reddy remarked.

When Congress MLA Komatireddy Rajgopal Reddy claimed that SCCL had invited tenders to auction coal blocks in Odisha to encourage bidding by only a few businesses, he sparked a verbal brawl with TRS members.

"It is an open tender and any company is free to bid. The tender guidelines, which have been followed for many years, are followed even in these tenders," Jagadish Reddy remarked.