Tension at VSP township as NITI Aayog CEO visits Vizag

Visakhapatnam: TENSION gripped Ukkunagaram, the township of Visakhapatnam Steel Plant, following an attempt to gherao NITI Aayog CEO Amitabh Kant by agitating employees on his way to AP MedTech Zone here on Thursday.

The attempt was thwarted by the authorities with the last-minute change in route of Amitabh Kant to reach AMTZ, an ultra modern medical equipment and testing park developed near VSP. "A large number of employees of Rashtriya Ispat Nigam Limited (RINL), the corporate entity of VSP, had assembled on the way to Hilltop Guesthouse with the hope that Amitabh Kant would check into the guesthouse and proceed to AMTZ from there to see the facilities in the zone," Visakha Ukku Parirakshana Porata Samiti chairman D Adinarayana told Bizz Buzz.

He said to con them of, the VVIP was taken in another route via Parawada though they had planned impromptu to meet him on hearing about his visit and submit a representation to direct the Central Government to explore other options to prevent privatisation of RINL.

The employees whose agitation against privatisation entered 189th day on Thursday felt that the Cabinet Committee on Economic Affairs (CCEA) gave green signal to strategic disinvestment of RINL by way of 100 per cent privatisation only on the recommendation of NITI Aayog-the apex planning body in the country.

RINL, which recorded a turnover of Rs 18,000 crore during 2020-21 has a land bank of 22,000 crore. A PIL against privatisation filed by former IPS officer VV Lakshminarayana is pending before the Andhra Pradesh High Court.

The company has a debt burden of Rs 22,000 crore after incurring a loss of Rs 1,604 crore in 2015-16, Rs1,263 crore in 2016-17 and Rs1,369 crore in 2017-18. It earned a profit of Rs 96.7 crore in 2018-19 and again plunged into trouble with the highest-ever loss of Rs.3319 crore in 2019-20.

CITU leader N. Rama Rao and INTUC Gandham Venkata Rao said NITI Aayog's change in stand for disinvestment from loss-making PSUs to strategic disinvestment in viable PSUs led to the decision to privatise RINL realise part of the target of Rs.1.75 lakh crore set for 2021-22.

BJP MLC P.V.N. Madhav said the government is taking up disinvestment of PSUs for infusion of funds, technological upgradation and improvement in techno-economic parameters to be globally competitive.

Tata Steel has already expressed its willingness to submit bids for acquisition of RINL after submitting its proposal to take over Neelachal Ispat Nigam Limited (NINL), which has 1.1 million tonnes plant in Odisha along with captive iron ore mines.