Coal production affected badly in SCCL

Coal mines wore deserted look as most of the workers did not attend duties in response to the call given for a day –long nationwide strike in east part of the Adilabad district.

National trade unions gave call for strike in protest against the alleged anti- workers and employees policies being adopted by the Central government.

As many as 26,000 workers did not attend to their duties. Officers, however, did not participate in the strike and it is estimated that the strike affected 45,000 tonnes of coal production worth Rs 16 crore in the Adilabad district. Both underground and opencast coal miners actively participated in the strike in all the coal mines.

Members of AITUC, INTUC, CITU, HMS and IFTU actively participated in the strike while the participation of the members of recognized trade union Telangana Boggugani Karmika Sangham (TBGKS) in the strike was nominal as the leaders of same organization asked its members not to participate in the strike till the last hour.

Trade union leaders Vasireddy Seetharamaih, Gunda Mallesh of AITUC, Riyaz Ahmed of HMS, Venkatrao of INTUC, T. Srinivas and Venkateshwarlu of both the groups of IFTU and Thummala Rajireddy of CITU and others participated in the strike and took out rallies in the coal belt area.

According to sources, the strike affected total 1.5 lakh tones coal production worth Rs 42 crore in 32 underground and 16 opencast mines in the Singareni Collieries Company Limited ( SCCL) spread in Adilabad, Karimnagar, Warangal and Khammam and workers incurred Rs 17 crore  worth loss of wages by participating the strike.

Strike 'exposes' Swachh Bharat

Neither political leaders nor district officials were seen removing the piled up garbage on the streets and government offices in Adilabad, Mancherial, Nirmal, Kagaznagar, Bellampalli and other municipalities in the district.

The garbage remained there till some sanitary workers who called off their strike started removing it.

It is surprising to note that politicians and babus were active with the brooms during the Swacha Bahrath programme.  

The strike exposed their commitment to the Swach Bhrarath porgramme. But some individuals and groups who were conscious about the sanitation made efforts to remove the garbage in their localities especially in cities like Hyderabad. But there was no such effort from anybody in small towns.

No politician or officials came forward to remove the garbage in government offices and in the colonies when the sanitary went on strike.

The piled up garbage started getting cleared from the colonies only a section of the sanitary workers swung into action.

Everybody was waiting for the strike to be called off as the residents of the colonies could no longer bear the foul smell emerging from the piled up garbage. Even today, a large number of people think that sanitation related work is menial.

Resident of Vidyanagar in Adilabad observed that the ruling party Ministers and MLAs convinced a section of sanitary municipal workers affiliated to their party (Telangana Rashtra Samiti) to call off their strike promising to fulfill their demands but the latter could not motivate the officials and public to clear the garbage.

More stir against TRS soon