Report by Kamgar Ekta Committee (KEC) correspondent
Hundreds of employees of Visakhapatnam Steel Plant, also known as Rashtriya Ispat Nigam Limited (RINL), took out a padayatra on 15 April 2023 to protest against the Centre’s stubborn stand on privatisation of the steel plant.
Leaders of various trade unions, employees and workers under the banner of Visakha Ukku Parirakshana Porata Samithi (Struggle committee to protect Vizag Steel) assembled at steel plant’s entrance at Kurmannapalem junction and walked in a procession for about 25 km.
The trade unions expressed anger over a statement released by the Union ministry of steel on 14 April that there was no change in the stand of the government on 100 per cent disinvestment in the RINL through the process of privatisation.
Clarifying on some media reports regarding a hold on the disinvestment process of RINL, the Union steel ministry statement said that there is no freeze on the disinvestment process of the RINL and it is under progress.
“Efforts are being made by the company and supported by the government to improve the performance of RINL and keep it as a going concern,” the statement added.
This was in response to the statement made by the Union Minister of State for Steel, Faggan Singh Kulaste on 13 April, who told reporters during his visit to RINL that the Centre had no intention of hurrying through the privatisation, but was focussing on strengthening the plant to run on its own.
Later in the day, however, the Union Minister told the union leaders of the steel plant that a decision on the strategic disinvestment of RINL was not in his purview as it was a Cabinet decision.
“For the last two years, we have been agitating against the Centre’s move to privatise the Visakhapatnam Steel Plant. We shall not rest till the Centre withdraws its decision,” a trade union leader said.