Ask Centre to reconsider its decision on VSP, forum urges President

‘The decision taken by the CCEA on January 27 is unconstitutional’

The Intellectual Forum of Andhra University has appealed to President Ram Nath Kovind to prevail upon the Centre to reconsider its decision on privatisation of Visakhapatnam Steel Plant (VSP) in the interest of the nation, in general, and Andhra Pradesh, in particular.

A roundtable was conducted, under the aegis of the D. Suvarna Raju, coordinator of the meeting, and a former Student’s Union leader of Andhra University, at TLN Sabha Hall here on Tuesday. The letter to the President was signed by 27 participants, including former Vice Chancellor of Damodaram Sanjivayya National Law University Y. Satyanarayana and a former Professor of AU Chandu Subba Rao. Describing the decision of the Cabinet Committee on Economic Affairs (CCEA) on January 27, 2021, on privatisation of VSP through 100% disinvestment as ‘Unconstitutional, arbitrary, malafide and undemocratic’, they noted that the Centre was doing 100% injustice to the State. Questioning the double standards of the Centre, they wondered why the Centre has invested ₹1,200 crore from public sector banks and ₹8,000 crore from ONGC, when the Gujarat State Petroleum Corporation had become a sick unit. The government had also removed it from the list of insolvent industries, announced by the RBI. The corporate houses, which were the largest defaulters to banks, were given huge corporate tax exemptions, running into lakhs of crores of rupees. Their loans were written off by the government. They also alleged that the ‘strategic sale’ by the BJP government was aimed at handing over public assets to a few select industrialists.