Taking their campaign to the State Capital, leaders of various unions of Visakhapatnam Steel Plant on Tuesday sought the support of Deputy Chief Minister Damodar Rajanarasimha, Leader of Opposition in Assembly N. Chandrababu Naidu and others to put pressure on the Centre to drop disinvestment of Rashtriya Ispat Nigam Limited (RINL).
The leaders said the Deputy Chief Minister promised to write a letter to Prime Minister Manmohan Singh to intervene and stop RINL issue hitting the Dalal Street on October 16.
IPO
Most of the leaders whom the all-union delegation met agreed to their demand to drop the Rs.2, 500-IPO which was being pursued by the Department of Disinvestment.
The union leaders also met Congress MP K. Chiranjeevi, YSR Congress Party working president Vijayamma, BJP State president G. Kishan Reddy, CPI State secretary K. Narayana and CPI (M) secretary B.V. Raghavulu and Tribal Welfare Minister P. Balaraju.
Mr. Naidu reportedly directed Telugu Desam Parliamentary Party leader Nama Nageswara Rao to lead a team of MPs to represent to the Prime Minister and Union Finance Minister to stop disinvestment of RINL, the corporate entity of VSP.
The union leaders gave detailed presentation on how VSP was established at Visakhapatnam after the ‘Visakha Ukku Andhrula Hakku’ agitation.
The delegation consisted of D. Adinarayana (AITUC), N. Rama Rao (CITU), Mantri Rajasekhar, Gandham Venkata Rao (Steel INTUC), Varasala Srinivasa Rao (Janshakti Mazdoor Sabha), Rammohan Kumar, Pydiraju (TNTUC), G.R.K. Raju (Visakha Steel Employees’ Union), Polayya (HMS) and T. Jagadish (VSMS).
“It’s the pride of Andhra Pradesh and under no circumstances it should be allowed to go to private hands,” Mr. Adinarayana said.
The union leaders said diluting 10 per cent of equity was only a beginning and it would subsequently lead to handing over VSP on a golden platter to private parties.
