Trade union leaders stage a protest against Jindal agreement

Visakhapatnam: Demanding the cancellation of an agreement with Jindal Steel and Power Limited and signing an MoU with SAIL instead, trade union leaders lay siege to RINL’s administration building here on Tuesday.

Their demands also included implementation of the new wage of 2017 and provide employment to the displaced families of Visakhapatnam Steel Plant.

A large number of police personnel reached the spot and prevented the protesters from entering the building. This led to an argument between the protesters and police.

The union leaders staged a sit-in protest on the road and raised slogans ‘quit Jindal, welcome SAIL’ against the Union government and the VSP management.

Speaking on the occasion, representatives of Visakha Ukku Parirakshana Porata Committee mentioned that the Centre is not responding to the all-party trade unions agitation for the last 1,047 days as they continue to protest against the sale of the Visakhapatnam Steel Plant.

VUPPC chairman D Adinarayana alleged that the Union government intentionally pushed the plant into losses by hatching a conspiracy as privatisation is not becoming easy due to the Ukku stir.

INTUC president Neerukonda Ramachandra Rao alleged that Jindal, who has been tricked in the garb of running Blast Furnace-3, is being brought into the plant to privatise it in a phased manner.

VUPPC convener J Ayodhya Ramu demanded that the agreement made with Jindal in the name of material supply and conversion should be cancelled. “The MoU with the JSPL should be cancelled otherwise CMD of RINL will be held responsible for dire consequences in future” warned the trade union leaders.