Agitation against Centre’s decision to privatise Visakhapatnam Steel Plant to complete 1,000 days on November 8

Agitation against Centre’s decision to privatise Visakhapatnam Steel Plant to complete 1,000 days on November 8. The resilient employees and trade unions, under the banner of Visakha Ukku Parirakshana Porata Committee, have been able to successfully stall the process from going further. The major issue plaguing the VSP is that it is the only steel plant that has not been allotted captive iron ore mines.

The agitation against 100% strategic sale of the Rashtriya Ispat Nigam Limited (RINL), the corporate entity of Visakhapatnam Steel Plant (VSP), will be entering 1,000th day on November 8.

The resilient employees, in collaboration with various trade unions, have been able to stall the efforts of the Union Government to sell the company to a private entity.

Soon after Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman had announced the strategic sale of RINL on January 27, 2021, the employees and trade unions such as CITU, AITUC and INTUC quickly joined forces to form the Visakha Ukku Parirakshana Porata Committee (VUPPC) to take the agitation forward.

The struggle committee has been able to stall all attempts to privatise the plant. In fact, the valuation report could not be prepared so far, as members of the committee had to backtrack following stiff resistance from the employees.

In November 2021, the Union Government had constituted two committees to get the valuation done. On November 10, members of one committee were taken into the plant by a helicopter from the Visakhapatnam airport. But, by the time they could value the blast furnaces, over 1,000 employees gathered and stalled their process.

Any strategic sale has three phases — valuation report by a committee, Expression of Interest, and bidding.

As the valuation report is not ready, there is no scope for EoI and bidding. “We will not let the plant be sold to a private entity at any cost. We do not mind if it is given to SAIL,” says Ch. Narasinga Rao of the CPI (M), who is also the chairman of the VUPPC.