Revival package to facilitate private takeover, not to save VSP from privatisation: CITU national secretary

Former MP Tapan Kumar Sen criticises BJP government's plan to privatise Visakhapatnam Steel Plant, highlighting hidden agenda behind revival package.

Former MP and CITU national general secretary Tapan Kumar Sen on Monday (May 19) said the BJP-led NDA government at the Centre hatched a plan to privatise the Rashtriya Ispat Nigam Limited (RINL), the corporate entity of Visakhapatnam Steel Plant (VSP), four years ago with its “disinvestment” announcement.

Mr. Sen was in the city to participate in various programmes, including a meeting with the leaders and activists of the RINL-VSP trade unions to lead a nationwide protest on May 20.

Addressing a press conference at the CITU office here, he said it is the right of every citizen, including the residents of Visakhapatnam, to fight for the protection of the plant for the sake of thousands of employees and their families, and the lakhs of people who indirectly depend on the plant for their livelihood.

On the ₹11,400 crore revival package announced by the Centre earlier this year, Mr. Sen said the Centre had announced the package to facilitate private takeover in the future, not to save it from privatisation, invest in its infrastructure or pay off pending salaries of employees. He pointed out that there was a hidden agenda behind the revival package.

The revival package is useless without the allocation of captive mines. Private steel companies in the country have their own mines and ore units, but the government did not think of arranging for these key facilities for the PSU. “By buying raw materials from outside, Vizag Steel Plant spends ₹4,000 to ₹6,000 a tonne on ore, whereas if it is given its own mines, it costs only ₹600 a tonne,” Mr. Sen said.