Accordingly for 33 years, Kalaveni Mallaiah (58), a hardened mine worker, has assiduously striven to make ends meet. Traveling from Telangana’s Mancherial to the Singareni Collieries Company Limited’s underground mine in Srirampur daily, Mallaiah’s life, over the years had become listless and monotonous. Mallaiah said “He had nothing to look forward to and there were no increments in wages. He was doing the same job over and over and was stuck in a limbo for decades”.
Furthermore over three months ago, however, Mallaiah began to think that he could finally turn his life around. Earlier in August 2018, Telangana Chief Minister K Chandrashekar Rao (now the caretaker CM) announced that mine workers would get a 27% share in profits, instantly winning a special place in the hearts of thousands of demoralized workers. Moreover with the Telangana elections around the corner, thousands of mine workers have pledged their loyalty to KCR, whom they revere as the savior of the poor and downtrodden.
Mine workers also allege that the leader of the TRS trade union, Ravinder Reddy, is unsupportive and dictatorial, and also corrupt. Posaiah adds “Ravinder Reddy is working hand in glove with Diwaker Rao and all the trade union leaders want is to extract money from mine workers when they go to them for help. Hence apart from KCR, no one here at the local level has helped us. There have been various governments run by Congress and TDP in the past but no one has delivered on promises like KCR”.
