Tirupati: Congress protests privatisation move of Vizag steel plant

Tirupati: Congress party has flayed the Central government's decision to privatise Vizag steel plant. The party organised a dharna in front of Municipal Corporation office on Saturday. Party leaders P Naveen Kumar Reddy, AICC member Prameelamma, K Chiranjeevi, P Prabhakar, Ramachandra and others took part in the dharna.

Speaking on the occasion, the leaders demanded the Central government to withdraw the decision to privatise the steel plant and make an announcement in the Parliament in the next 24 hours. Otherwise, the party will intensify the protest from Tirupati.

They recalled that then Prime Minister Indira Gandhi laid the foundation stone for the plant in 1971 following the Satyagraha for six years since 1966 to which educational institutions, transport facilities came to a standstill. About 32 people have lost their lives during the protests then.

Now, the plant has grown by leaps and bounds and its worth one lakh crore property now with 17,500 employees.

The Manmohan Singh government expanded the factory with an investment of Rs 10,000 crores in 2009. The NDA government has been trying to sell it to private players and start a new factory in Uttar Pradesh which is highly deplorable.