The move to privatise Visakhapatnam Steel Plant (VSP) will be taken forward only in consultation will all its stakeholders, who included its employees, BJP Rajya Sabha member G.V.L. Narasaimha Rao has said.
Addressing the media on Tuesday, Mr. Narasimha Rao said that employees were the main stakeholders and the “BJP promises to take care of them.”
“The employees may also have a stake in the deal,” he added.
Stating that it would take at least one year for privatisation of the VSP as it was listed after 34 other PSUs. He said it would be done in transparent manner.
‘VSP will benefit’
Reiterating Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s view that “the government has no business to do business,” Mr. Narasimha Rao said privatisation was for the benefit of the VSP.
“The Centre intends to have a role only in respect of strategic industries and that it will not interfere in non-strategic units,” he said, and citied as example how private airlines were doing good compared to the government-run airlines.
He also said that privatisation of industries was not based on whether they were making profit or loss.
Dig at YSRCP govt.
Taking a dig at the State government, Mr. Narasimha Rao said that on the one hand it was welcoming POSCO to set up a plant in Krishnapatnam and on the other it was opposing VSP privatisation for political mileage.
Meanwhile, members of the Visakha Ukku Parirakshana Committee condemned Mr. Narasimha Rao’s statement that industries would prosper after privatisation.
Committee chairman Ch. Narasinga Rao asked Mr. Narasimha Rao whether the BJP was ready for a debate over the VSP issue. “It is a conspiracy hatched by the BJP to handover VSP to private people instead of allotting it captive mines,” he alleged.
On Mr. Narasimha Rao’s statements that China had prospered after privatisation, Mr. Narasinga Rao said that about 90% of sectors come under the government’s purview in that country. The government there had complete grip over the 10% industries in the hands of the private people, he added.
