Will protect VSP from privatisation, says AP BRS president Thota Chandrasekhar

VISAKHAPATNAM: Andhra Pradesh State Bharat Rashtra Samithi president Thota Chandrasekhar has said that the decision to privatise the Visakhapatnam steel plant is a brutal act to deceive the employees and assured that the BRS will strive to protect the plant and safeguard it for future generations.

Speaking at a meeting held with Steel plant workers at the BRS office in Visakhapatnam on Monday, Thota Chandrasekhar recalled his childhood incidents stating that he witnessed the agitation for the setting up of the steel plant when he was a student. He said that he was brought up in Visakhapatnam and was aware of many issues besides his selection for the IAS.

Alleging that the Visakhapatnam Steel Plant was pushed into losses,

despite the workers making their efforts to increase the assets, Thota Chandrasekhar said that the Centre was conspiring to hand over the steel plant assets to Adani Group. The BRS president proposed three demands before the Centre, which included revoking the decision to privatise the steel plant, allotment of mines to the plant, and giving the lands back to the displaced families.

Thota Chandrasekhar further alleged that the Centre had mulled a plan in the name of a disinvestment programme to hand over public assets to private powers, especially to the Adani group. He accused the Adani group, which acquired Gangavaram port for imports, of now conspiring to take the lands of the Visakhapatnam steel plant for coal imports.

The former IAS officer on the occasion sought the assistance of Rs. 5,000 crores for the VSP as debt and assured that it would be paid with interest.

Chandrasekhar clarified that the BRS government in Telangana had come forward to participate in the bidding process as the ruling and opposition parties in Andhra Pradesh were not raising their voices against the privatisation of the steel plant. He said that the VSP union had extended support to make arrangements if KCR came to the port city.