KCR Assures Singareni He Will Stick By Promises

Basking in the glory of decimating the opposition in yet another election, Telangana Chief Minister K Chandrashekar Rao said that the overwhelming success of the TBGKS (affiliated to the TRS) in the Singareni Collieries employee union election yesterday by defeating a united Opposition was a pointer to the immense confidence of the people in the TRS in the state.

Speaking to the media at Pragathi Bhavan this afternoon, the CM said that despite the false propaganda launched against the TRS during the campaigning, the Singareni workers had reposed their trust and confidence in the TRS by electing the TBGKS in all the 11 divisions in the elections.

The opposition parties had predicted that the union elections in Singareni would be the beginning of the downfall of the TRS, but the victory of TGBKS showed that it was the opposition that was in terminal decline. In fact, the outcome of the elections proved that the people saw no place in the state for the opposition, he said.

Despite the euphoria and elation, the CM still took pains to reiterate that his government would fulfill all the promises it made to the Singareni Collieries workers in the run-up to the union elections, especially with regard to the revival of jobs for dependants of employees who needed to retire early for medical reasons (commonly referred to as dependant jobs in the SCCL universe), which was struck down by the courts.

KCR promised that the state government would immediately start the process in this regard, and that 100% of the jobs sought on "compassionate grounds" would be provided.

The TRS government would also do everything possible to protect all the other interests and the welfare of the Singareni workers, he said. All necessary steps would be taken to ensure that the losses being incurred in the open-cast mining would be made good, and to ensure workers' representation on the Singareni Collieries Company Board, he said. The workers were forced to suffer during the past by successive governments, and the TRS would ensure that the mistakes committed in the past would not be repeated, he added.

The Chief Minister also took the opportunity to hail the contribution made by the Singareni workers in achieving statehood for Telangana. The employees by participating in the bandh of the coal mines for 45 days during the Telangana movement had shaken the entire country and created jitters in the powers-that-be at the Centre, he said.