Strongly refuting Centre’s claims of promoting Visakhapatnam Steel Plant, APCC chief YS Sharmila Reddy alleged that it was a conspiracy to sell the Plant to Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s friends at a cheapest value.
She lamented that the Center has a stepmother’s love for the steel plant and PM Modi has been never showing the love that he has been maintaining towards the Kannada Steel Plant. She made it clear that all the moves are directed to bankrupt the Visakh Steel Plant.
She lashed out that the Center is conspiring to kill the plant without helping a single rupee by saying that there is no privatization. She recalled that Union Steel Minister HD Kumaraswamy has provided Rs. 15,000 crores to the Karnataka Steel Plant and brought the steel plant back to life.
She said that the Center, which gave a large amount of funds to the Karnataka Steel Plant, which employs 243 people, has no intention of supporting Visakha Steel, which employs 26,000 people. She was furious that while the JD(S), which has two MPs, has received funds of Rs. 15,000 crore, the TDP-Jana Sena parties, which have given life to the NDA, are saluting Modi.
Sharmila deplored that 18 MPs are making fun of the Center, which is really shameful to all AP people. She accused that it is proof of the incompetence of the AP MPs.
She expressed concern that Visakha Steel is presently in a very critical situation as not in a position to pay salaries, production has decreased due to shortage of raw materials and the plant is on the verge of bankruptcy, and the workers have been protesting for 1400 days seeking immediate financial assistance from the Center.
But, she wondered that Chief Minister Chandrababu Naidu was discussing Mittal Steel with Prime Minister Modi, but not about Visakha Steel. Sharmila asked when both the state and central governments are not finding any shortage of iron ore for the plant to be set up by Mittal, but why unable to provide such assurance to Visakha Steel?
Sharmila said that the Congress party is demanding that the coalition government immediately merge the plant with SAIL and also central funds. She wants to increase production capacity to 20 million tons in the future. If these cannot be achieved, she demanded that the TDP and Jana Sena immediately should withdraw from the NDA partnership.
