Hyderabad: The Vice-Chairman of Telangana State Planning Board, B. Vinod Kumar, on Saturday October 16 demanded that coal from the Thadicherla mines of Singareni Collieries Company Limited (SCCL) should not be transported to other States.
He said the coal from Tadicherla should be strictly used for power generation at the Bhupalapally thermal power plant.
His statement came in the wake of the Centre hinting at procuring coal from SCCL to tide over the coal crisis facing the country.
Kumar stated that some top officials of the Central government have given oral instructions to SCCL authorities to supply coal from Thadicherla mines to other States.
He said transporting Thadicherla coal meant for Bhupalapally thermal power station to other states citing coal shortage in those states is not justified.
He urged the Centre to drop any plans to transport Singareni coal from Thadicherla to other States.
Meanwhile, state Finance Minister T. Harish Rao alleged that a conspiracy is being hatched by the Centre to take away Telangana’s coal. He claimed that the Centre is pressurising the State to transport coal to other States.
“Telangana has coal reserves for 15 days while as per the rules, there should be coal reserves at thermal power stations for 22 days. Yet the Centre is pressurising us to give coal to other States saying they have reserve for 2-3 days,” Harish Rao said.
The minister said that at a time when many States, including those ruled by the BJP, are imposing power cuts, Telangana is supplying power 24×7 to all sectors.
“We are not only meeting our demand, but are also selling 6-10 million units to the neighbouring States,” he said.
