New Delhi: YSRCP MPs, TDP and left parties and National Trade Unions extended unilateral support to the Vizag Steel Plant workers agitation at Jantar Mantar in New Delhi on Monday. The Vizag steel plant workers are staging a two day Dharna at Jantar Mantar in protest of the Modi government’s privatization move of the Vizag steel plant.

The Vizag steel plant employees, staging agitation against the privatization of Vizag Steel plant chanted and re-sounded the slogan “Vishakha Ukku Andhrula Hakku” at Jantar Mantar. Visakha Ukku Parirakshana Porata Committee organising ‘Maha Dharna’ at Jantar Mantar opposing the Centre’s proposal to go for 100 per cent strategic sale of Rashtriya Ispat Nigam Limited (RINL), the corporate entity of VSP. Braving rain that lashed Delhi, hundreds of workers of the steel plant sat on a dharna holding placards demanding withdrawal of the Centre’s decision to privatise the VSP.

విశాఖ ఉక్కు పోరాట కమిటీ ఆధ్వర్యంలో ఢిల్లీలో జరిగిన ధర్నాలో వైఎస్సార్‌సీపీ ఎంపీలంతా పాల్గొనడం జరిగింది. విశాఖ స్టీల్ ప్లాంట్ ప్రైవేటీకరణకు మాపార్టీ పూర్తిగా వ్యతిరేకమని గౌరవ ముఖ్యమంత్రి శ్రీ వైఎస్ జగన్ గారు గతంలోనే ప్రకటించారు. ఇందుకోసం ఏ పోరాటంలోనైనా పార్టీ నాయకులందరూ పాల్గొంటాం. pic.twitter.com/XOVnZnJlli

— Vijayasai Reddy V (@VSReddy_MP) August 2, 2021

The YSRCP parliamentary party leader V Vijay sai Reddy visited the Dharna and demanded that the VSP loans be converted as equity, besides allocating captive iron ore mines to the steel plant to make it a profitable PSU. In his address at dharna, YSRC MP V Vijayasai Reddy said that they would not allow privatisation of the steel plant under any circumstances.

He also said that the VSP is one of the largest PSUs in the country and it was set up following sacrifices of 32 people during the agitation for the steel plant. As soon as the State government got wind of the proposal of the Centre to privatise the VSP, Chief Minister YS Jagan Mohan Reddy wrote a letter to Prime Minister Narendra Modi urging him to roll back the decision and also suggested measures to revive the steel plant.

Through a joint agitation only we can save the plant. Nearly 1 lakh people are dependent on the plant and it came to the rescue of people during the Covid- 19 pandemic by supplying liquid oxygen, he said, adding that the plant was earning `200 crore profit a month now. It is not correct to privatise the plant if it suffered losses for a few years, he said.

YSRC MPs PV Midhun Reddy, BV Satyavathi, MVV Satyanarayana, Magunta Srinivasula Reddy, Gorantla Madhav, Margani Sri Bharat, Bellana Chandrasekhar, Pilli Subhash Chandra Bose addressed the dharna and said they wo u l d s t a l l t h e VSP privatisation. TDP MPs Galla Jayadev and Kanakamedala Ravindra Kumar said the party would fight for the cause of steel plant both inside and outside Parliament. “The Centre should withdraw its proposal in the larger interests of steel plant workers,’’ they said.

National trade union and Left party leaders Binoy Viswam, Elamaram Kareem, Amarjit Kaur, Tapan Sen and others spoke at the dharna. They attacked the Modi government for going ahead with its privatisation plan. Asserting that they would continue the agitation till the Centre withdraws its decision, Visakha Ukku Parirakshana Porata Committee chairman D Adinarayana said the agitation would be intensified.