Visakhapatnam: The employees’ unions and the officers’ association of Rashtriya Ispat Nigam Limited (RINL), the corporate entity of Visakhapatnam Steel Plant, have launched a campaign to drum up support for their long-pending demand to merge the cash-strapped public sector with the steel giant Steel Authority of India Limited (SAIL).

The main objective of the lobbying is to save the Visakhapatnam-headquartered public sector company from the brink of closure or imminent privatisation. With change in government in Andhra Pradesh and installation of Modi 3.0 regime at the Centre, the employees are hopeful that this will be a ‘do or die’ battle for all of them. They said VSP set up after an agitation under the aegis of ‘Visakha Ukku Andhrula Hakku’ agitation in 1969 which led to sacrifice of 32 lives in police firing and the recent statement by Union Minister of State for Steel Bhupatiraju Srinivasa Varma that they would not go against the sentiments of the people has rekindled their hopes for a better future.

Post-polls, G Kishan Reddy from Telangana has been inducted as the Union Minister for Coals and Mines and besides Varma, Kinjarapu Rammohan Naidu from AP has become the new Cabinet Minister for Civil Aviation. All the three Ministers from undivided AP are familiar with the requirements of RINL and have remarked that they will try to bail out RINL in deference to growing public opinion.

TDP State president Palla Srinivasa Rao, who won as MLA from Gajuwaka where most of the employees of RINL reside, said their party is very firm on retaining RINL as a public sector entity.

During the run-up to general elections, Chief Minister N Chandrababu Naidu, whose support is crucial for the Modi 3.0 Government, said after the elections he would lead a delegation of alliance partners to Delhi and ask the Centre to drop the privatisation proposal. He had also claimed credit for withdrawal of privatisation proposal and launching of revival package when Atal Bihari Vajpayee was the Prime Minister.

“We are hopeful that the new governments at the Centre and in the State will see reason in our demand and give RINL some working capital grant to ramp up its production and consider merger with SAIL as a viable permanent solution of mutual benefit. SAIL, which has captive mines, wants to go for Rs1 lakh crore expansion to increase its capacity by 75 per cent to 35 million tonnes per annum by 2030. RINL has a land bank of 20,000 acres with proven workforce and scope for further expansion from its present capacity of 7.3 million tonnes,” Ch Narsinga Rao, president of Visakha Ukku Parirakshana Porata Samiti, told Bizz Buzz.