Hyderabad: The Telangana State government appears to be unperturbed over the five-day strike by some employee unions of the Singareni Collieries on the grounds that it would not have any impact on the overall production.

However, on the first day of the strike, production was hit and the employee attendance in some mines in the second shift was quite thin. The state government says no strike will have an impact until the state achieves surplus power generation.

“People are aware that the state is passing through a power crisis. We told our union to refrain from strikes. The left-wing unions should also understand and cooperate,” Lakshma Reddy, Telangana State minister for power said.

The management of Singareni Collieries Private Limited claimed that there is relatively no impact. “A total of 50,000 tonnes of coal was produced and 46,000 tonnes was exported. The employee attendance in shifts was 50 per cent of the required 74 per cent.

We believe normalcy would be restored by Wednesday evening,” Chandrasekhar, general manager (operations), said. We may lose around 16,000 tonnes of coal production on account of the strike, he added.

The main employees’ union Singareni Boggu Gani Karmika Sangham backed by the ruling Telangana Rashtra Samiti, did not participate in the strike.

Employees belonging to other unions including have boycotted work. Employees began the strike protesting against the Centre’s recent ordinance which allows 10 per cent mining in the 204 blocks by commercial firms.

All India Trade Union Congress state committee member Y. Ghattaiah claimed that around 80 per cent of the employees have not attended work. In Khammam district too, employee turnout was poor, but production has been hit partially. The attendance in various mines of Kottagudem, Manuguru and Yellendu was 52 per cent in the first shift and 49 per cent in the second shift.

Sources said that the coal miners of SCCL have not taken the strike seriously since it was called by the unions which were predominant in Coal India Limited. The SCCL management deployed more miners in the open cast mines to mine more coal. SCCL produces 1.51 lakh tonne per day and it managed to produce above 1 lakh tonnes on the first day of the strike.

Police arrested the leaders of AITUC and Centre of Indian Trade Unions at the Srirampur and Mandamarri mines of Adilabad district as a preventive measure during the strike.

TBGKS general secretary Miryala Rajireddy, said in Adilabad, that the strike was not related to Singareni and that’s why they were not participating in it. “We the SCCL management looks into the demands of the workers if they are genuine.”