The Visakha Steel Executives Association (SEA) has appealed to BJP State president D. Purandeshwari to convince the Union government to merge the Visakhapatnam Steel Plant with the Steel Authority of India Limited. (SAIL)
As SAIL has been asked to increase its steel production capacity by another 10 million tonnes by 2030, it is not a wise decision to privatise Visakhapatnam Steel plant. The Indian steel industry will also be benefitted, the SEA members said.
They said that if the steel industry is totally privatised steel prices will not be under the control of the government and common people will face problems.
The SEA members requested her to pursue the matter with the Prime Minister's office to make a policy to keep the steel industry as a priority sector.
They said that the 5,000 executives working in Visakhapatnam Steel Plant are very unhappy due to the suspension of promotions for officers from 2020. In addition to this, since 2017 pay revision of officers has been kept pending showing illogical affordabilty clause and many officers are leaving the organisation due to lack of wage agreement and promotions, the SEA members said. They urged her to take initiative to solve their problems at the Steel Minister’s office.
SEA president Katam S.S. Chandra Rao, general secretary K.V.D. Prasad, joint secretary Narasimha and executive members Satyanarayana were present in the meeting.
