Visakhapatnam: Former Union minister and BJP national general secretary Daggubati Purandeswari on Sunday said that the BJP was favourably inclined towards the Visakhapatnam steel plant and that she would convey the public opinion to the party high command.
Talking to reporters here, she said she came to know about the decision only after the Centre announced it, and she, on her part, would make efforts to stop privatisation of the steel plant as the people of Visakhapatnam and the state had an inseparable connection with the steel plant.
There were plans to merge it with a bigger organisation to provide one lakh jobs in the steel plant, she stated, adding that the disinvestment of RINL had begun long ago.On the failure to allot captive iron ore mines to the steel plant, she said that it was Congress government’s fault and other parties were party to it. The Centre had introduced an extra-ordinary budget in a bid to tide over the COVID crisis and people were worried which sector would be burdened by this, she said.
MLC PVN Madhav said that RINL was not alone in privatisation as the LIC of India, Air India and others were brought under it. The BJP had protected public sector undertakings in Visakhapatnam from privatisation, he recalled, and cited the examples of Hindustan Shipyard Ltd., and Dredging Corporation of India. In the case of the steel plant, he had immediately rushed to Delhi to speak to the Centre, he said, and added that the steel plant would be intact.