The Hindu : Miners' strike continues

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Sunday, Feb 02, 2003

Southern States

Southern States - Andhra Pradesh

Miners' strike continues

By Our Special Correspondent

HYDERABAD FEB. 1. The stalemate over the indefinite strike launched by workers of Singareni Collieries Company Limited is continuing even as the Government has reiterated its assurance to consider all the demands put forth by the agitating workers' unions positively.

Though the SCCL management initiated steps to resume a dialogue with workers' union representatives in the presence of the Regional Labour Commissioner, the effort proved futile as the latter expressed helplessness in participating in the negotiations today. "They have asked us to come for discussions, but we have expressed our helplessness as many of the union leaders are still in jails. We have conveyed to the management that we will come for talks on Monday if all our leaders are released,'' the Singareni Parirakshana Samiti convenor, Y. Gattaiah, presently camping at Godavarikhani, said.

When contacted, he refuted the claims of the management and the Government that more than 20,000 miners were attending to their duties and the production touched the 87,000-tonne mark despite the strike. "The stocks projected by the Government are only buffer stocks and not those produced during the strike period. A majority of those attending to duties were from the civil side,'' Mr. Gattaiah said.

Meanwhile, the Government came down heavily on Opposition parties, the Congress and the CPI(M) in particular, for trying to mislead people by their false propaganda over privatisation of the SCCL. "While SCCL figures in the list of enterprises that are not included in the second phase action plan of the Public Enterprise Reform, the Congress and CPI(M) are indulging in misinformation campaign to serve their political ends,'' the Minister for Roads and Buildings, T. Nageswara Rao, the Minister for Energy, K. Subbarayudu, and the Minister for Information and Public Relations, S. Chandramohan Reddy, said.

Addressing a press conference, the Ministers along with the Adilabad MP, S. Venugopalachary, asserted that there was no move from the Government to privatise Singareni Collieries Company Limited which had recently started showing up profits.

On the contract signed by the SCCL to deploy the surface miner, which raised the storm, they said that the management signed the contract in a bid to improve efficiency in mining and the equipment would be put in place only on an experimental basis.

Bandh observed

Our Staff Reporter in Khammam writes: About 300 coal workers and their trade union leaders were arrested as they sprung a surprise by laying a siege to the Gautamkhani opencast project defying the prohibitory orders and heavy police bandobust on Saturday morning. The local MLA, Vanama Venkateswar Rao, who sought to force his way into the opencast project with his men, was also taken into custody. His car was seized.

A bandh was observed in Yellandu town in protest against the arrest of the trade union leaders. The police presence was stepped up in the coalmine areas. The police disallowed protests and public meetings by implementing prohibitory orders under section 144. The situation was peaceful in Manuguru area as well.

The management has claimed a substantial increase in the attendance as well as production.

According to a Karimnagar report, Congress(I) MLAs -- Indrakaran Reddy, D. Sridhar, T. Jeevan Reddy and N. Diwakar Rao -- trade union leaders and over 200 workers were taken into preventive custody by the police when they staged a rasta roko at Godavarikhani. The arrested trade union leaders included Y. Gattaiah and I. Venkat Rao.

Earlier, the MLAs and leaders addressed a meeting at the INTUC office. They alleged that the State Government, succumbing, to the pressures of the World Bank, was planning to privatise the profit-making Singareni mines.

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