Date | Jan 08, 2016:

The revival of the long-pending dependent employment scheme by the Singareni Collieries Company Limited (SCCL) has rekindled hope among coal miners and their children of securing employment in the State-owned coal company.

With the Singareni management deciding to accept the application forms for the dependent employment scheme from January 2 onwards, there was overwhelming response to the same. Till Saturday, the management had received 1,019 applications at all the welfare offices. The process of submitting the application forms would continue till March 31.

The last date has been fixed at March 31 in order to facilitate coal miners having only daughters to perform their marriages and ensure that their sons-in-law get employment under the scheme. The miners’ families were busy searching for eligible grooms and provide the dependent employment as a gift instead of giving dowry. The miners, in order to provide employment to their sons-in-law, have to show the marriage photos and videos to the welfare officer.

The management has decided to accord priority to the children of coal miners who would be retiring within a year. Later, it would be given to the dependants of miners who would retire in two years, and so on.

Moreover, Chief Minister K. Chandrasekhar Rao’s decision to open 20 more open cast projects and 11 underground mines in the next five years in the Singareni region has further boosted the morale of miners and their dependants. The opening up of new mines would provide employment to more than 12,000 persons in the region.

Trade union Telangana Boggu Ghani Karmika Sangham (TGBKS), which had crusaded for the revival of the dependent employment scheme, opened grievance cells at all the underground mines and their offices to provide guidance to the miners about filling up application forms, etc. Speaking to The Hindu, TGBKS general secretary Kenjerla Mallaiah said the miners were upbeat over the revival of the scheme after 18 years.

The children of miners would be recruited as ‘Badili workers’ and would later be eligible to get promotions depending upon their qualifications after writing departmental exams, he said.

(Source: http://www.thehindu.com/)