Giving a big respite to the State government as well as the people of the state, Union Minister for State for Steel Faggan Singh Kulaste has announced that there is no proposal to privatize the Visakhapatnam Steel Plant (VSP) as of now.
The Union Minister participated in a Rozgar mela in Visakhapatnam and while addressing the gathering he made it clear that there is no plan to divest the VSP as of now. “The Centre is planning to strengthen Rashtriya Ispat Nigam Limited (RINL),” he stated
However, the minister said the issue would be would reconsidered later. Interestingly, the political parties are interpreting the Union Minister’s announcement for their favour to gain political mileage. A heated debate has also begun on whether the Union Minister’s announcement would help the BRS politically as the party announced it would participate in bidding through Singareni calories.
Some leaders alleged that the entire VSP privatization episode reflected the ineptness of the ruling YSRCP. The ruling YSRCP has failed to wage a direct battle against the Centre opposing the privatising move. The BRS leaders have already claimed that because of the BRS’s attempts to participate in bidding, the Centre put on hold the privatization move. It may be recalled that BRS AP president Thota Chandrasekhar has extended his solidarity to the agitating VSP workers three days ago.
Telangana Minister Harish Rao criticised the AP parties for their inability to oppose the privatization move and claimed that the Centre’s backtracking in VSP privatization is the moral victory of BRS.
The people of AP are of the view that the BRS could do what the TDP, YSRCP, JSP and BJP could not do in AP in the VSP privatization issue. The BRS leaders pointed out that even one MP had not raised the VSP privatization issue in the Parliament.
“It is definitely a setback to the ruling YSRCP, ” a senior TDP leader opined. The BJP has not condemned the privatization move vehemently even at once, a ruling party leader pointed out.
If the Centre had made an announcement stating that the privatization move was permanently withdrawn, that would have helped politically to the BJP in AP, a BJP leader said. The JSP will not gain any mileage with the VSP episode, a political expert opined.
