CPM condemns Anurag Thakur’s remarks on VSP privatisation

"Even while the agitation to save Vizag steel plant is intensified, the minister's remarks tend to provoke Telugu people," CPM Visakhapatnam district secretary K Lokanadham said

Visakhapatnam: CPM on Wednesday took strong exception to the Union Minister of state for Finance Anurag Singh Thakur’s statement that ‘steel plants will be closed down if they are not allowed privatisation’.

“Even while the agitation to save Vizag steel plant is intensified, the minister’s remarks tend to provoke Telugu people,” CPM district secretary K Lokanadham said, and urged to people to stall attempts by Modi government to hand over public sector undertakings to his followers for a song in the name of patriotism.

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In this context, he wondered how the private sector Yes Bank was nationalised for incurring losses. It is unfair to sell Vizag steel plant which has assets worth Rs.2 lakh crore and the Centre is answerable as to why it failed to allot captive mines to the plant which would have drastically cut the input costs, he stated.

“The Centre has so far invested only Rs.4,890 crore in Vizag steel plant and the plant has so far paid Rs.44,000 crore by way of taxes and dividend over years. The residents in the area sacrificed 22,000 acres of land and the shore-based plant is well connected by air, water and rail. The Steel minister in 2019 promised the trade unions that no decision on privatisation would be taken without consulting the workers and now has gone back on his word. We appeal to the people to rise above politics and get ready to protest the BJP betrayal,”
Lokanadham said.

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