Emulate Jagan, employees urge Odisha CM

Visakhapatnam: THE employees of Neelachal Ispat Nigam Limited (NINL), which owns a 1.1 million tonne integrated steel plant in Kalinganagar in Odisha have appealed to Chief Minister of the neighbouring State Naveen Patnaik to adopt a resolution in Assembly on the lines of one which was approved in Andhra Pradesh Assembly asking the Centre to rollback the decision to privatise Rashtriya Ispat Nigam Limited (RINL).

The employees of NINL, to prevent its disinvestment have been fighting for formation of a giant steel company by merging RINL, NINL, NMDC and SAIL. All these companies are now in the public sector with a threat of disinvestment.

In a letter to Naveen Patnaik, they urged him to draw cues from his AP counterpart YS Jagan Mohan Reddy and adopt a resolution to explore other options by withdrawing the decision for sale of NINL.

Reddy was credited with getting a resolution adopted in the Assembly to drop the disinvestment of RINL. He also sought immediate grant of captive iron ore mines, converting loans into equity, monetisation of surplus lands and exploring other options to put RINL, the corporate entity of Visakhapatnam Steel Plant, on the right track. NINL's major shareholders are MMTC Ltd, Govt. of India Enterprise (49.78 per cent), Govt. of Odisha through IPICOL and OMC (32.47 per cent).

After the decision of strategic disinvestment of 100 per cent shares in NINL taken by the Central Government, major promoter MMTC has stopped further funding for running of the plant. As a result, there was a severe liquidity crunch which compelled suspension of production of blast furnace from August 2019 and coke oven from March 2020 during Covid-19 lockdown due to scarcity of raw material. The plant is now on the verge of closure.

Employees' legitimate salaries and other dues are pending since March2020. "The situation is worsening by the day and people are in severe mental turmoil and great uncertainty brought about by the pandemic. We wish our chief minister would see reason in the initative taken by his counterpart in AP Jagan Mohan Reddy and adopt a resolution on the lines of one on RINL to prevent sale of NINL," Neelachal Executive Association general secretary Ajit Kumar Pradhan told Bizz Buzz.

"It may be noted that with the existing infrastructure and readiness of captive mines of 874 hectares & 50 years of lease, as of August, 2019, NINL is capable of achieving more than 100 per cent capacity utilisation and earning profit. MMTC has been working as a commission agent of NINL since its inception from 2004 onwards. It is really surprising that MMTC was not running the plant and consequently incurring losses it wanted to divest its shares," the representation stated.