Andhra Pradesh State committee of the Centre of Indian Trade Unions (CITU) has accused the NDA government of cheating the RINL-Visakhapatnam steel plant.
In a statement here on Thursday, committee State general secretary Ch. Narasinga Rao said that Union Minister for Steel and Heavy Industries H.D. Kumaraswamy, during his visit to the steel plant here on Thursday and also during the interaction with the trade unions on the occasion, said the revival package would be spent only on paying off debts and no funds would be spent on operational expenses, including raw material, salary arrears etc.
“Without payment of raw material expenses and salary arrears, how will the steel plant be operated?” Mr. Rao asked. This clearly indicates that the Union government led by Prime Minister Narendra Modi will definitely implement the strategic sale of the plant. He said the government will eventually sell the plant to corporate companies at low prices.
He alleged that the Centre had created the debts of the steel plant only after announcing the strategic sale of the plant on January 27, 2021.
Mr. Rao said that the NDA partners the TDP and the Jana Sena Party wanted to escape the responsibility of operating the steel plant to its full capacity, and protect it from privatisation being strategically made by their partner BJP at the Centre.
Visakha Ukku Parirakshana Porata Committe leaders J. Ayodhya Ramu, Manthri Rajasekhar, Varasala Srinivasa Rao and Neerukonda Ramachandra Rao and others spoke to mediapersons after the Union Steel Minister’s meet and said that they were not satisfied with the revival package and also expressed their apprehensions on the future of the plant.
They wanted the government to work on allocation of captive mines, registration of the steel plant lands in the name of RINL and tax holidays for four years.
Published – January 31, 2025 09:39 am IST