Ramchander Rao Condemns Denial of Permission to BJP Delegation’s SCCL Visit

Hyderabad:State BJP president N. Ramchander Rao strongly condemned the denial of police permission to a party delegation to visit SCCL mines to find ‘coal thieves’ behind the disappearance of around 45 lakh metric tonnes of coal. He alleged that Chief Minister Revanth Reddy was spreading false propaganda against Union minister Kishan Reddy to hide the Singareni coal scam.

Speaking to reporters, Rao harshly criticized the Revanth Reddy government for using the police to thwart a fact-finding team led by party grassroots leader Maheshwar Reddy, MLAs and MLCs who were on their way to unearth the truth behind reports of disappearances from SCCL mines. Although the Center holds 49 per cent stake in SCCL, it has no control over the company as the majority stake is held by the state government and hence Kishan Reddy had written a letter demanding an investigation into this scam.

BJP Assembly floor leader Maheshwar Reddy demanded a CBI probe into the incident. He claimed that BJP activists and leaders were injured and hospitalized due to police action when they tried to visit SCCL. He demanded an investigation into SCCL for the last 12 years since N. Sridhar’s tenure as CMD. Balram. He asked the state government to either appoint an Assembly committee or conduct an investigation by the CBI.

Maheshwar Reddy also alleged that the state government was pushing for closure of schools by reducing the number of schools in the name of rationalization. He said more than 90 per cent of government schools in the state were dilapidated and lacked separate toilets and basic infrastructure for girl students.

He asked why Revanth Reddy’s statement promising Rs 1,000 Million to Osmania University has not been fulfilled so far. Expressing his deep concern, he stated that the condition of hostels in OU is deplorable, that hostel ‘B’ has already been closed, while hostels ‘D’ and ‘E’ are on the verge of collapse. He said the quality of the mix was poor and condemned the suspension of professors who spoke out for students’ issues and rights. He demanded immediate reconstruction of hostels in Osmania and Kakatiya Universities.