Allocation of own captive mines serves as sole solution for VSP
Visakhapatnam: Even as the resumption of the Blast Furnace-III of Visakhapatnam Steel Plant (VSP) is commendable, Visakha Ukku Parirakshana Porata Committee (VUPPC) members underlined that the real solution for the plant lies in allocating captive mines to it. Emphasising that the Central government should work on it at a media conference held in Visakhapatnam on Saturday, the committee's chairman Ch. Narasinga Rao stated that the VUPPC representatives demand that the plant be merged with the SAIL. 'It is apparent that the Central government is deliberately not providing captive mines and pushing the plant into losses. Due to lack of own mines, VSP has to spend an additional Rs 4,000 crore every year,' he expressed concern.
Reiterating that the Central government decided to handover the operation and maintenance of production departments of the VSP to private companies, VUPPC chairman D Adi Narayana said, tenders have been invited from interested contractors by 12th July to handover the operation and maintenance work of two important departments of the plant-- the sinter plant and the raw material handling plant (RMHP) to private contractors. 'Likewise, the rest of the departments too will go through a similar fate.
Permanent workers, contract workers and officers working now will not have any say in the production. The new contractors will hire their own men. The contractors will run the VSP for their own profits. We strongly condemn this policy of handing over all production units to contractors,' said D Adi Narayana. As the Central government decided to sell 100 percent of the VSP, the relay hunger strike at Kurmannapalem continued for the past 1,583 days. However, the relay hunger strike camp could not be continued as the camp collapsed on June 12 due to rain and the police have been preventing the hunger strike from taking place at the camp, suppressing thousands of contract workers' indefinite strike, VUPPC representatives V Srinivasa Rao and N. Ramachandra Rao lamented, demanding the state government to grant permission for the relay hunger strike camp.
Expressing concern over the dismissal of about 5,000 contract workers in the past three months without giving any prior notice or compensation to them, the VUPPC representatives pointed out that permanent employees and officers with experience and skills are being forcibly asked to opt for VRS. The central government is trying to run the plant engaging contractors from other states, depriving locals of employment, they criticised.
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