VISAKHAPATNAM: The agitation being spearheaded by Visakha Ukku Parirakshana Porata Committee against the strategic disinvestment of RINL - Visakhapatnam Steel Plant, entered the 1,000th day on Wednesday. Activists of various parties, including TDP, YSRC, CPI, and CPM, joined the protest held at Kurmannapalem Junction. They raised the slogan of ‘Visakha Ukku Andhrula Hakku’. The Porata Committee leaders emphasized the need to intensify the agitation. Mild tension prevailed when police prevented the Porata Committee leaders from staging a rasta roko.
Porata Committee leaders Adinarayana, Ch Narasimha Rao, Mantri Rajasekhar, and J Ayodhya Ram demanded that the Centre immediately withdraw the VSP privatization proposal. Terming the steel plant a public asset, they urged Prime Minister Narendra Modi to stop handing over the plant to corporate houses.
The Porata Committee launched the relay hunger strike at Kurmannapalem Junction on February 12, 2021, after the Department of Investment and Public Asset Management (DIPAM) decided to go for 100% strategic disinvestment of the steel plant. The leaders demanded that Chief Minister YS Jagan Mohan Reddy should lead an all-party delegation to the Centre demanding the withdrawal of the steel plant privatization proposal.
Former vice-chancellors of various universities participated in Nirasana Deeksha to extend their solidarity to the agitating steel plant employees. The Joint Action Committee staged a dharna and formed a human chain at the Gurajada statue near the RTC complex to mark the 1,000th day of steel plant agitation. CPM corporator Ganga Rao, CITU district secretary RKSV Kumar, and CPI district secretary M Pydiraju asserted that they are prepared for any sacrifice to protect the steel plant from privatization.
Meanwhile, educational institutions observed a bandh across the State in response to a call given by the student unions to mark the 1,000th day of the steel plant stir. Private schools declared a holiday following the bandh call. Students of government colleges and schools boycotted classes. The CPM condemned the arrest of student union leaders, who enforced the bandh.