It is known that several labour unions have been protesting in the shore city Visakhapatnam, against the privatisation of the Visakhapatnam Steel Plant (VSP), built with state-of-the-art technology since the past week.
YSRCP supremo, Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister YS Jagan Mohan Reddy has met the leaders of the labour unions on Wednesday. During the meeting, the Chief Minister said he wrote a letter to PM Modi.
In the letter to Prime Minister Narendra Modi, Jagan Mohan Reddy gave three suggestions to the former to rescuing the Vizag Steel Plant, Jagan told the labour union leaders.
The suggestions include the allocations of mines in Odisha to the Vizag Steel Plant that are high on iron ore reserves. The bank debt should be converted into equity and the surplus land of the plant should be sold.
Taking about bringing down the interest weightage, the Chief Minister has suggested the conversion of bank debts with high-interest rates into equity, which paves way for the reduction of debts to Rs 2,500-3,000 crore, which in turn will result in helping the steel company to retain profits.
Jagan Mohan Reddy has also suggested the proposal to earn revenue from the excess lands owned by the Vizag Steel Plant which are left abandoned. The left alone 7,000 acres out of the 20,000 acres of land could be monetized.
Adding further, the Chief Minister said, all the required permissions to monetized the surplus land owned by the VSP will be allotted by the AP government without any obstacles.
I have written a letter in this regard to the Prime Minister 10 days back and I am awaiting a response from him. I urge the leaders of the Andhra Pradesh wing of BVJP to support me in this regard, CM Jagan said.
He said that he made these suggestions to give a major boost up to the Vizag Steel Plant which enables the plant to attain profits rather than privatising the plant.
Jagan has also rubbished the rumors of Posco acquiring the VSP. He said they met him to discuss the investment plans in Kadapa, Krishnapatnam, and Bhavanapadu.