BHUBANESWAR: Former Union Minister for Steel Braja Kishore Tripathy has urged Prime Minister Narendra Modi seeking his personal intervention into reviving Neelachal Ispat Nigam Limited (NINL), which is under disinvestment since 2018.
In a memorandum addressed to the PM, Tripathy stated that it is unfortunate to know that financial bids were invited recently after around four years of the disinvestment decision and though January 10 was the date for the opening of bids for declaration of the highest bidder, this has not happened yet.
“NINL has captive iron ore mines worth more than `1 lakh crore. The decision of disinvestment of 100 pc shares of NINL is unfair, unjust, and illogical. Now, this has become a case of looting of public money by using the coercive power of authorities. It is an urgent requirement to put an immediate stay on the disinvestment process,” he said.
During his tenure in the Ministry of Steel, Tripathy claimed that the National Mineral Development Corporation (NMDC) was introduced as a promoter to infuse money for the betterment of NINL. The fate of 10,000 families who are directly and indirectly dependent on the plant now hangs in balance as the production has stopped over the last two years.
In March last year, though NINL got permission to sell 50 pc of annual production capacity of iron ore mines in the open market to meet employee salary and arrears with other legitimate dues, the employees are hapless as only part salary has been cleared up to February 2021 by selling finished products lying on NINL premises.