Singareni workers have been given a 60-day window to secure action on 11 pending demands after Telangana Rakshana Samithi chief Kavitha led a protest at Singareni Bhavan in Hyderabad on Monday and sought a time-bound response from Singareni Collieries Company Limited (SCCL).
The demands include payment of 35% of Singareni’s profits directly to workers as a share or bonus, faster decisions by medical boards, and the regular conduct of medical board sessions twice a month. Workers have also sought dependent jobs, two guntas of land for every employee under the company’s own-house scheme, and the resolution of service and identity issues involving workers listed under alias names.
Kavitha held a dharna at Singareni Bhavan along with workers and members of the organisation. Following the protest, SCCL management called her for talks and assured her that pending issues would be addressed, according to the report.
The medical board demand concerns workers who have applied to be declared medically unfit. The protesters have sought decisions without what they described as unnecessary delays, along with a consistent schedule for board meetings. The demands place the company’s administrative processes, including medical assessment and employment-related decisions, at the centre of the dispute.
The housing-related demand seeks two guntas of land for each worker under the own-house scheme. The request connects employment benefits with access to land and housing, while the demand for dependent jobs concerns employment support for workers’ families. The group has also called for pending service and identity matters to be settled for employees whose records use alias names.
Kavitha said the protest was being held under the joint auspices of the TRS and HMS to seek solutions to the problems of 40,000 Singareni workers. She warned that she would return to Singareni Bhavan and begin an indefinite hunger strike if the demands were not fully resolved within 60 days.
The immediate next step is for SCCL management to examine the 11 demands within the deadline set by the protesting workers. The company has assured Kavitha that it will work towards resolving the pending issues, but the report does not specify a separate implementation schedule or identify which demands will be addressed first.
