Date | Feb 26, 2017:

About 26,000 contract workers were working in the Singareni Collieries Company Limited (SCCL) spread in six districts of Telanagna, BJP Floor Leader G Kishan Reddy said.

Speaking at the " Meet the Press" programme, organised by Telangana Journalists Union (TJU), Mr Reddy said during the discussion on Singarani in the Assembly on January 5, Chief Minister K Chandrasekhar Rao had announced that there are no contract workers in Singareni. But the ground realty is different. About 26,000 contract workers, some of them working from 20 years in different sectors including under ground mining, open cast mining, hospitals, canteens and among others.

Mr Reddy said that ''he (CM) may be misled by the officials or he misled the House'' on Singareni contract workers issue.

Based on the requests and phone calls from workers of Singareni, Mr Reddy under took 4-day padayatra from February 20 to 23 to know about the problems.

Detailing his visit to Singarani, Mr Reddy said that earlier, Singareni had produced 12 million tons of coal with the workers strength of 1.16 lakh. Now the production capacity is increased to 66 million tons but the workers strength is minimized to 58,000, excluding contract workers.

While reminding the Government rule that no contract worker should work in some areas including under ground mining, open cast mining, Mr Reddy asked the state government to take necessary action to regularise the contract workers.

Mr Reddy also criticised the state government for not implementing hiked minimum wages which was announced by the Coal India on April 1, 2016.

He also asked the state government to provide medical and other facility to the displaced people.

Mr Reddy said that he will submit a detailed report on what he had ascertained during his visit, to Governor ESL Narasimhan, Chief Minister K Chandrasekhar Rao, Union Minister Piyush Goyal and Coal India.

(Source: http://news.webindia123.com/)