Khammam: Tension prevailed across all the mining areas of the Singareni Collieries Company Limited (SCCL) in Khammam district on Tuesday...
Barring the SCCL's recognised trade union – The Telangana Boggu Gani Karmika Sangham (TBGKS)---the other major trade unions of AITUC, INTUC and CITU took part in the nationwide strike.
The 21 incline (underground mine) in Yellendu witnessed tense moments when the employees of two trade unions jostled with each other with one union supporting the strike and the other saying no to the strike. The timely intervention of the police defused the situation.
As a precautionary measure, the police took a few trade union leaders into custody at Yellendu and Kothagudem, where the impact of the strike was severe. Meanwhile, the SCCL officials claimed that strike has little impact on production and dispatches.
According to SCCL officials, as many as 16,813 employees attended the first shift duties while 2,044 were on leave out of a total 36,229 employees on rolls. The number of absentees was 17,372. In the second shift, 4,832 workers attended the duties against a total of 10,619 employees. While 412 were on leave, the number of absentees was 5,366.
Mancherial (Adilabad): All national trade unions of SCCL on Tuesday called for a bandh here in protest against the privatisation of SCCL along with Coal India Limited.
The employees of Mandamarri, Srirampur of Bellampalli region participated in the strike. There are 17 coal mines, along with five open cast mines and about 27,000 employees have been working at Bellampalli region only.
The officials of Singareni were worried about this strike as the company was going to incur huge loss due to it. A single day, strike would bring down the productivity at about 45,000 tonnes of coal.
The police geared up all over to avoid unforeseen incidents. All the union leaders, who were in support of the strike, were arrested and taken to police station.
The workers took out a rally from bus stand to police station to appeal the police to release their leaders.
