Amaravati: APCC president Y S Sharmila on Monday urged Chief Minister N Chandrababu Naidu to secure a clear assurance from Prime Minister Narendra Modi that the Visakhapatnam Steel Plant will not be privatised.
She also urged Naidu to “fight” with the prime minister to merge the steel plant with the Maharatna Central Public Sector Enterprise, Steel Authority of India Ltd (SAIL).
“Make the Prime Minister announce that there will be no privatisation of the steel plant. Fight with Modi to merge the plant with SAIL,” Sharmila said in a press release.
Her remarks come days after Naidu accused VSP workers of “not working”.
“If you stay at home and do not work, what will happen? You have to remember—will salaries be paid for free? Should you not work? Will the Centre and state always give money?” Naidu said while addressing a press conference after the 30th CII Partnership Summit in Visakhapatnam recently.
Naidu reiterated that VSP, or Rashtriya Ispat Nigam Ltd (RINL), would not be privatised “at any cost”, adding that it must be run professionally. He questioned why other industries were turning profits while VSP was not.
He noted that the plant had been removed from the Board for Industrial and Financial Reconstruction (BIFR) list and said that Rs 12,000 crore had been infused into it after the formation of the TDP-led NDA government in 2024.
Detailing the government’s efforts, Naidu said unpaid power bills worth Rs 2,000 crore were converted into equity, while the state had forgone property tax, water charges and other dues.
Promising quarterly reviews of RINL’s performance, he urged workers to improve efficiency, saying, “Without working, where will the government get money? This is taxpayers’ money.”
“Is there no need for efficiency? Should we keep it as a white elephant and sit on it? We should make them work,” he said, adding that systematic operations would make the plant viable.
Calling VSP a “gold mine”, he said he would seek a report every three months and stressed that the plant should not incur losses.
Sharmila, however, described Naidu’s comments as “objectionable” and said the Congress party “strongly condemns” them.
“Retract those remarks immediately and apologise to the workers. Comparing the steel plant to a white elephant and alleging that workers are taking salaries for free is unfortunate,” she said.
Alleging that the chief minister’s remarks were part of a “conspiracy to privatise VSP”, she claimed that the workforce had been reduced from 30,000 to 18,000 and that raw material supplies had been curtailed, among other issues.
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