VISAKHAPATNAM : The Centre on Tuesday said it had responded to a letter written by Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister YS Jagan Mohan Reddy requesting to reconsider the disinvestment plan of Rashtriya Ispat Nigam Limited (RINL), the corporate entity of Visakhapatnam Steel Plant, reiterating its stand to privatise it. It also reiterated that Public Sector Enterprises (PSEs) in nonstrategic sector would be considered for privatisation if feasible, otherwise for closure.
This comes at a time when employees of the steel plant were on a two-day dharna in Delhi against the privatisation of the VSP. Minister of State for Finance Bhagwat Kishanrao Karad, in a written reply to YSRC MP V Vijayasai Reddy’s query in the Rajya Sabha, said the decision for 100 per cent disinvestment of Government of India’s stake in RINL along with RINL’s stake in its subsidiaries/ joint ventures was taken by the Cabinet Committee on Economic Affairs (CCEA) on January 27, 2021.
Vijayasai Reddy sought to know whether the finance ministry remained silent when the Cabinet took a decision to privatise RINL and would the Centre consider allotting captive iron ore mines to the VSP and take over debt and let the company function for three to four years and see its performance.
He also asked whether the Centre was in receipt of Chief Minister YS Jagan Mohan Reddy’s letter requesting not to privatise RINL. In his reply, Karad said the Centre received a communication from the Chief Minister of AP after the CCEA took a decision for strategic disinvestment of RINL requesting to reconsider the move to privatise the steel plant.