Leaders of various trade unions, on the banner of Visakha Ukku Parirakshana Porata Committee (VUPCC), have unanimously resolved to draw inspiration from the Quit India movement and wage a united struggle against the decision of the Centre on the ‘strategic sale’ of Visakhapatnam Steel Plant (VSP).
At a seminar organised here on Tuesday, the speakers demanded stoppage of the sale of public sector industries. The seminar opposed the sale of PSUs to private persons. They said that VSP, which was achieved after 32 persons had sacrificed their lives, was providing livelihood to about one lakh people. The Centre had invested a mere ₹5,000 crore, but today the plant was valued at ₹3 lakh crore, they said.
VSP has paid ₹45,851 crore to the Central and the State governments in the form of taxes and dividends. The capacity of the plant has been increased to 7.3 million tonnes. They alleged that the Centre has decided to sell the ‘golden goose’ to foreign and domestic investors. It failed to take note of the unanimous resolution adopted by the Andhra Pradesh Assembly opposing the sale of VSP.
The trade unions also decided to hold protests at all industries in the region in September and, if the Centre failed to withdraw its decision on VSP, the agitation would be intensified.
VUPPC leaders D. Adinarayana, Ch. Narasinga Rao, Mantri Rajasekhar, J. Ayodhya Ram and K. Eswara Rao were among those who participated.
