Visakha Ukku Parirakshana Committee chairman D. Adinarayana has said that the Visakhapatnam Steel Plant (VSP) was established following widespread protests by people against the decision of the then Central government to set up the steel plant elsewhere in the country.
He was addressing steel workers, who participated in the 169th day of the relay hunger strike at the steel plant arch at Kurmannapalem here on Friday. The Centre had, however, delayed the construction of the plant, which resulted in the VSP accumulating losses over the years, he said. The government had made plans to refer it to the BIFR (Board for Industrial and Financial Reconstruction) in the past and hand it over to some corporate groups, he added.
In the subsequent years, attempts were made to divest the stakes in the plant in the name of going for an Initial Public Offering(IPO). Several attempts were made by the government over the years to sell the plant but they could not materialise due to united struggles by the workers and employees, Mr. Adinarayana said.
Committee leader B. Mahesh and member Parandamayya called upon the workers not to get disheartened by the moves of the government but to continue the struggles unitedly to stop the government from going ahead with the privatisation of the steel plant.
