The Andhra Pradesh government on Wednesday announced a 16 per cent special performance-linked incentive to the workers of the Singareni Collieries Company Limited (SCCL), jointly owned by the state and central governments on a 51:49 equity basis.
In an effort to encourage SCCL workers for better performance and increase production and productivity, the government has decided to pay 16 per cent profit-sharing bonus for the 2007-08 financial year, as against 15 per cent in the previous fiscal, state labour minister G Vinod told mediapersons. The state government has been paying special bonus to SCCL workers since 1999-2000.
The Coal India management is paying Rs 5 lakh as special ex-gratia to the dependents of the deceased who met with mine fatal accidents in addition to the compensation and other normal benefits with effect from December 14, 2007. The state government has also decided to implement this in SCCL as the wages, facilities and promotions of all the coal workers in the country are one and the same, he said.
SCCL is also planning to set up a 600Mw power plant in Jaipur mandal of Adilabad district at an estimated outlay of Rs 2,700 crore, foundation stone for which would be laid by chief minister YS Rajasekhara Reddy in November.
“Modalities for the project are being worked out and it would probably be executed in a public-private partnership model,” the minister said. The project would meet about 150Mw of power for internal consumption, while the rest would be sold to other buyers.
Brushing off reports that the production activity at SCCL’s 13 opencast and 42 underground mines in Adilabad, Warangal, Khammam and Karimnagar had come to a standstill due to the trade unions’ one-day nationwide strike on Wednesday, Indian National Trade Union Congress (INTUC) working president B Venkat Rao said the strike had no impact.
“The mining activity is on and SCCL is on course to achieve its coal production target of 43.5 million tonne per year for 2008-09, as compared with 40.6 million tonne last year,” he said.
