Steel Minister Rules Out RINL Privatisation

Visakhapatnam: Buckling under pressure after employees and contract workers, who laid siege to the office of the Executive Director (Works) until 2am on Tuesday (October 2), management of Rashtriya Ispat Nigam Ltd (RINL), the corporate entity of Visakhapatnam Steel Plant (VSP), withdrew the termination of service for 4,200 contract workers. Meanwhile, Union Steel and Heavy Industries Minister HD Kumaraswamy took to X, ruling out the privatisation of the cash-strapped company.

Stoutly denying the charge made by Public Accounts Committee Chairman and Congress general secretary (organisation) KC Venugopal, Kumaraswamy popular as HDK in Karnataka, said on Thursday that efforts are on to improve the performance of PSUs under the NDA led by Prime Minister Narendra Modi. He also recalled his feedback following his visit to Visakhapatnam Steel Plant after taking over as the Union Minister for Steel and Heavy Industries.

The tweet assumes importance in the wake of recent utterances by Union Minister of State (MoS) for Steel and Heavy Industries Bhpathiraju Srinivasa Varma and SAIL Independent Director and BJP State general secretary Sagi Viswanatha Raju that not merger, the takeover of RINL by SAIL with the support of Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister N Chandrababu Naidu is a viable solution to bail out Visakhapatnam-headquartered PSU.

The controversy with regard to the future of RINL is expected to take a new twist with Naidu scheduled to meet Union Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman on October 8 amid the buzz that the Ministry of Steel will submit the revival package finalised by it to the Ministry of Finance for the required approval. Earlier, in his tweet, HDK said: “Shri @kcvenugopalmp avare, 4,200 Visakhapatnam steel plant contract workers were reinstated on the 29 September within 48 hours of their termination as soon as it came to my notice. Rashtriya Ispat Nigam Ltd (RINL) has reinstated 4,200 contract workers, who were terminated on September 27. The reinstatement is effective from September 29.”

He stated: “Stop trying to politicise the issue for the sake of petty and vote bank politics. You are rather misinformed as you have raked up this issue despite it being resolved to stoke tensions.”

The RINL management has also clarified that around 3,700 contract labour passes were cancelled and that they are working to restore the passes in the online system soon. The biometric database of the workers will also be reinstated. During discussions, all parties have agreed to maintain the existing gate pass system along with the necessary facilities.

The Minister pointed out: “I have also visited the Vizag steel plant after taking over as the minister for steel and heavy industries, after holding discussions with the people’s representatives, officials and workers it has been promised that all their concerns and problems will be looked into after holding discussions with the PM @narendramodi Ji and Finance Minister @nsitharaman Ji. Your baseless allegations that the NDA government is trying to sell off the Vizag steel plant is far from the truth.”

He told the Congress leader: “Numbers don’t lie Venugopal and here it is for your better understanding. Due to better management of PSUs, their share prices have tremendously increased in the last three years, adding the total market cap of all 81 listed PSUs (62 CPSEs, 12 Public Sector Banks, 3 Public-Sector Insurance Companies, and IDBI Bank) has grown by 225 percent.”

Kumaraswamy said, “the performance of PSU stocks under former Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee-led NDA government, via-a-vis the 10 years (2004-09) of UPA rule, during 1999-2004 (NDA): PSU index soared over 300 per cent, vastly outperforming the BSE Sensex’s 70 per cent gain.”

The trigger for the Union Minister’s reaction was the posting made by Venugopal on X, which stated, “the unfair termination of 4,200 contract workers from Vizag Steel Plant exposes the BJP’s anti labour outlook once again.”

There is no doubt that this is being done as a precursor to privatise the plant and hand it over to the PM’s dear corporate cronies,” Venugopal said.