With the issue of coal block auction snowballing into a major political row in the State, Telangana Chief Minister A Revanth Reddy has appealed to Prime Minister Narendra Modi to allot some blocks in the Singareni area to the Singareni Collieries Company Ltd (SCCL), a State-owned company.

He also wanted the Union government to remove the Shravanapalli Coal Block from the purview of auctions.

Reddy, along with his Deputy Bhatti Vikramarka, met the Prime Minister in New Delhi on Thursday and submitted a memorandum, giving him a wish-list.

Stating that the State and Centre have 51 per cent and 49 per cent stake respectively in the company, the Chief Minister invoked Sections 11A and 17 A of the Mines and Minerals (Development and Regulation) Act to call for the removal of the coal block from the auction list.

“We also request you to allot the Koyagudem and Sattupalli Block 3 mines in the Godavari Valley coal mine area to SCCL under the provisions in the Act,” he said.

Controversy

The auction notification triggered a political row in the State, with the Bharat Rashtra Samithi criticising the Congress government for not doing anything to remove the Shravanapalli Block from the list.

“These blocks are crucial for catering to the needs of power projects in the State,” he said, pitching for the allotment to SCCL.

Bifurcaction promises

Reddy asked Modi to facilitate the clearing of several promises made by the Centre at the time of the bifurcation of the State in 2014. 

He also wanted the Prime Minister to revive the Information Technology Investment Region (ITIR) project, which was approved in 2010 for Hyderabad. The ITIR was aimed at developing infrastructure and promoting the IT industry in the eastern part of Hyderabad.

“Given the interest of several companies in setting up semiconductor fabs in Hyderabad, we request you to include Telangana in the India Semiconductor Mission,” he said in the memorandum.

The State appealed to the Union government to allocate 2,450 acres of defence land in various parts of the city to take up infrastructure development projects. It offered to compensate the Central establishments by transferring suitable land to another part of the city.