Will move Assembly resolution opposing Vizag Steel Plant privatisation: CM Reddy assures support to workers

The decision to privatise VSP has sparked widespread protests in the state especially in Visakhapatnam

Andhra Pradesh CM Jaganmohan Reddy has said that his government would do everything in its capacity to stop Vizag Steel Plant's privatisation, including sending a resolution passed by the state Assembly opposing the Centre's plans.

The Cabinet Committee on Economic Affairs (CCEA) has, last month, in-principle approved 100 per cent strategic disinvestment of the Centre's shareholding in Rashtriya Ispat Nigam Ltd., the corporate entity of the Vizag Steel Plant, along with management control by way of privatisation.

The decision has sparked widespread protests in the state especially in Visakhapatnam, where the 7.3 million tonne capacity per annum plant is located.

VSP employs about 15,000 permanent and 20,000 contract workers and provides indirect livelihood to over 65,000 people. The plant thus supports one lakh jobs and about five lakh people – about a quarter of Vizag city population, unions say.

VSP foundation was laid in 1977 by the then prime minister Indira Gandhi, after prolonged agitation, when people rallied under the popular slogan “Visakha ukku-Andhrula hakku” (Vizag Steel is Andhra's right). The agitation reportedly claimed over 30 lives. The plant was finally commissioned in 1992.

The opposition TDP is faulting the YSRCP government for “failing to protect the workers and state's interest.” On Tuesday, former CM Chandrababu Naidu visited Vizag in support of the agitation by the unions and his party men.

On Wednesday, Reddy met the steel plant employees' representatives on the sidelines of his visit to Sharada Peetham run by a religious guru in the city.

“We should note that VSP is a central PSU. We can only build every kind of pressure (to make the centre withdraw its plans),” Reddy told them.

Reddy had earlier this month written a letter to Prime Minister Narendra Modi appealing against VSP privatisation plans. He urged for some supportive measures like “allotting captive iron ore mines to bring down the input costs, swapping high-cost debt with low-cost debt, and converting debt into equity through equity conversion, to help make the plant become profitable again.”

“We are expecting that the central government would react positively by the time of the budget session. But if needed, we will build further pressure on the centre by passing a resolution against the proposal,” Reddy assured the agitated workers.

At the same time, the CM appealed to the workers to “ensure that steel production is not hit and the output is maintained at the optimum level.” “You can protest during your break time.”