Deliberate move to backstab VSP: CPM

Visakhapatnam: Both the State and Central governments have an eye on valuable lands of Visakhapatnam Steel Plant (VSP), pointed out CPM state secretariat member Ch Narasinga Rao.

Speaking to the media here on Wednesday, Narasinga Rao said the Union government was trying to weaken the VSP deliberately through various activities.

Earlier, the BJP government directed the VSP management to invest Rs 1,500 crore in the forged wheel plant Raebareli in Uttar Pradesh, which was supposed to manufacture one lakh wheels per annum. But the plant has manufactured only 732 wheels as of now, he added.

Meanwhile, the Central government had given orders to manufacture wheels for 400 Vande Bharat trains to Chinese Company, instead of the VSP, the CPM leader pointed out.

Similarly, the VSP was forced to spend over Rs 1,000 crore for Orissa Minerals Development Company (OMDC) in Odisha 15- years ago. But till now, he observed, the RINL has not received any iron ore from OMDC.

This apart, recently, auction was held for mines in Jharkhand, where the iron ore was allocated to Visakhapatnam Steel Plant, Narasinga Rao mentioned that the Central government has cancelled the auction and allotted mines to a private company.

The CPM state secretariat member alleged that it was a deliberate move of the Union government to weaken the VSP financially and also in production.

Further, Narasinga Rao said the Centre directed the VSP to reduce the production from January, 2022 and it was nothing but backstabbing the plant. He clarified that the fight against the Union government would continue until withdrawing its decision on privatising the VSP.

CPM city secretariat member B Ganga Rao alleged that the BJP government also threatened the local management of the VSP that if they did not obey their orders, a Steel Joint Secretary would be appointed through NITI Aayog to look into the affairs of VSP, he mentioned.

Ganga Rao said the plant has earned a profit of Rs 584 crore for the financial year of 2022. If the Union government allotted its own captive mines to RINL, it would earn crores of profits.