The workers of the Singareni Collieries called off their strike and began attending to their duties since this morning following the success of their talks with the management.

The Union leaders held talks with the CMD of the Collieries Mr. Narsing Rao last night and announced the withdrawal of strike. They have been on strike since Sept 13 as part of the mass general strike along with the four lakh government employees of the Telangana region demanding the formation of Telangana state.

The union leaders said the management has agreed to pay an advance payment Rs.25, 000 each to all workers for the strike period as demanded by them.  The Government-owned Coal India has also announced a bonus of Rs. 21,000 for the festival.  “Hence, we have decided to withdraw the strike,” said union leaders.

As a result, workers began attending to their duties at different units of the coal company at Adilabad, Karimnagar, Warangal and Khammam.

The management of the Singareni Collieries had suffered a revenue loss of Rs.600 Cr following a drastic drop in the production of coal by 40 lakh tonnes during the strike period. The workers have also suffered loss of salaries to the tune of Rs.175 Cr.

The union leaders said that the workers would strive to achieve the production targets of 52.3 million tonnes during the year.