Judicial intervention sought to stop Centre

Visakhapatnam: FORMER IPS officer VV Lakshminarayana has sought judicial intervention to set aside the Centre's decision to privatise Rashtriya Ispat Nigam Limited, the corporate entity of Visakhapatnam Steel Plant and prayed for a directive to explore alternatives to put it back on track. Known as JD Lakshminarayana for his stint as Joint Director of CBI, the former Jana Sena activist had earlier written a letter to Prime Minister Modi along with former CMD of RINL Y Siva Sagar Rao made certain suggestions to retain India's first shore based steel plant in the public sector.

In a PIL filed in the AP High Court on Tuesday, he demanded disclosure of details that figured at the meeting of Cabinet Committee on Economic Affairs (CCEA) on January 27, which accorded in-principle approval for privatisation of RINL. He pointed out that the steel plant was set up after 'Visakha Ukku Andhrula Hakku' agitation which claimed the lives of 32 in separate police firing incidents across undivided Andhra Pradesh in 1960s.

Lakshminarayana said non-allotment of captive iron ore mines was one of the main reasons for heavy debt incurred by RINL. According to a statement issued by Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman in Parliament, RINL has incurred a debt burden of Rs 22,000 crore as against an asset value of Rs 32,000 crore. The FM has set a target of Rs 1.75 lakh crore from disinvestment of public sector entities.

The Centre, the State Government, RINL and District Collector, Visakhapatnam have been made respondents in the PIL. The petitioner questioned the decision behind privatisation as the steel plant was set up after farmers surrendered 22,000 acres for the establishment of the steel plant and pointed out that some of the displaced families had not been provided jobs yet despite issuing rehabilitation cards long ago.