VIJAYAWADA: The Andhra Pradesh High Court on Thursday commented that it was unfortunate that the Visakhapatnam Steel Plant is on the verge of closure due to scarcity of coal following the strike of Gangavaram Port workers.
Hearing the petition of Steel Executives Association general secretary K Venkata Durga Prasad seeking the court’s directions to the government to ensure that coal supply to Visakhapatnam Steel Plant is not hampered due to the strike of Gangavaram Port workers, Justice N Jayasurya said it is paramount to safeguard the interests of the Visakhapatnam Steel Plant and asked the senior officials to address the workers’ stir and directed the Visakhapatnam Port management to divert the coal stocks at Gangavaram port to Visakhapatnam port.
The government pleader was directed to submit details regarding these from the State government to the court. The High Court registry was directed to make the Chief Secretary and Visakhapatnam Police Commissioner respondents in the case and clarified that till then no orders can be issued. Further hearing in the case was adjourned to Friday.
Petitioner’s counsel Ambati Srikanth Reddy submitted to the court that due to the workers’ strike at Gangavaram port, coal supply to Visakhapatnam Steel Plant has been affected, and as a result, out of three furnaces in the steel plant, only one is working and other two furnaces were damaged. He further submitted that it would take several crores of rupees to repair those furnaces and said once the existing coal stock is finished, the steel plant will be closed.
Stating that it will affect the livelihood of thousands of workers and employees, Srikanth Reddy said that a letter was written to the Chief Secretary explaining the problem and seeking a solution.
Responding to this, the government pleader said talks between Gangavaram port management and workers have taken place and said it is the responsibility of the management to ensure the needs and incentives of the workers as per the previous agreement. It was said that the district Collector informed the same to the port management and at present the Collector is busy with election duties.
Explaining to the court, counsel for Gangavaram Port YV Ravi Prasad said the workers were making untenable demands. He said to compensate for the land acquisition for the port construction, locals were provided jobs in the port and each of them was being paid Rs 22,000, though they were unskilled. He submitted to the court that the workers are now demanding Rs 36,000 per month as salary and Rs 50 lakh for the worker who takes VRS. Further, he informed that no strike notice was served in advance and the workers with their families resorted to flash strike. As all those on strike are locals, they are not allowing workers from other regions to enter the port, he added and said that the port is incurring a loss of Rs 5 crore per day with port activity stalled.
According to him, around 2.7 lakh metric tonnes of coal belonging to the Visakhapatnam Steel plant is stocked at Gangavaram port and already 80,000 metric tonnes have been shipped to Visakhapatnam port. In addition to this, the law and order situation has been compromised due to the flash strikes of workers, and the police are not acting on the complaint from the port management, Ravi Prasad added.