SEA asks AP BJP chief to convince Centre to merge RINL with SAIL

Vijayawada Visakha Steel Executives Association (SEA) has appealed to former Union Minister Daggubati Purandeshwari, who recently took over as new State BJP president, to convince the Centre to remerge the Rashtriya Ispat Nigam Limited (RINL), the corporate entity of Visakha Steel Plant with the Steel Authority of India Limited (SAIL). The executives of RINL said on Sunday that the remerger will be mutually beneficial as it will help SAIL to expand and RINL to cut down its production cost drastically by getting access to captive mines of SAIL units. SAIL is being forced by the Government of India to increase its steel production capacity by another 10 million tonnes with an investment of Rs 1 lakh crore by 2030. At the same time, it is not a good decision to privatise Visakha Steel Plant, which can be saved by merger with SAIL for mutual benefit, SEA stated in the representation.

"At the same time, for the construction of new projects in many sectors like national highways, railways, ports, if the steel industry is not protected and totally privatised, steel prices will not be under control of the government. If steel is produced entirely by private companies, there will be no government control of steel like the cement industry. It has been informed that steel will not be available to the common people if privatisation continues," the office-bearers of SEA stated.

SEA requested her to take up with the Prime Minister's Office to solve this problem and to evolve a policy to keep the steel industry in the priority sector. SEA president Katam SS Chandra Rao, general secretary KVD Prasad, joint secretary Narasimha and executive member Satyanarayana Anand were present.