APCC president S. Sailajanath on Wednesday exhorted people to wage a united struggle to stop the Centre’s strategic sale of the Visakhapatnam Steel Plant (VSP), which he said was the pride of Andhra Pradesh.
Addressing an all-party meeting chaired by APCC vice-president Sripathi Prakasm, he said it was time for all the parties to shed their political differences and come together onto a common platform to exert pressure on the Centre to give up privatisation of the VSP, which was achieved after a protracted struggle and supreme sacrifice made by people more than 50 years ago.
Describing the Centre’s decision as the “biggest land scam” in the State, Mr. Sailajanath said the ruling YSRCP in the State was hand in glove with the ruling BJP at the Centre with an eye on the huge land bank with the VSP.
“Now, the YSRCP is feigning ignorance on the privatisation issue after showering praise on the Union Steel Minister Dharmendra Pradhan,” he said, and added that Chief Minister Y.S. Jagan Mohan Reddy should make it clear to the Centre that the people of the State would not accept the decision that went against their interests and that they were prepared to wage a protracted struggle to save the PSU at any cost.
APCC general secretary Ch. Sridhar Reddy recalled the historic ‘Visakha Ukku, Andhrulu Hakku’ struggle, in which all sections of people took part, resulting in the then Prime Minister, Indira Gandhi, clearing the decks for the establishment of the PSU in the Port City.
Instead of fulfilling the promises made to the State at the time of bifurcation, which included a public sector sea port, the Centre was all out to privatise even the limited number of PSUs in the State, said Prakasam District Development Forum president Ch. Ranga Rao.
Poura Samajam’s Prakasam district president G. Narasimha Rao said people across the country should come together against the “privatisation spree” of the Centre as it was akin to “selling the family silver.”
Representatives of the TDP, the CPI, the CPI(M), and the PDSU attended the meet, and expressed their solidarity with those agitating for the cause.
