VISAKHAPATNAM: Jana Sena chief Pawan Kalyan on Sunday said BJP leaders in New Delhi were not aware of the situation in the State. It was the responsibility of the State MPs to take it to the notice of the Union government, he observed.
Addressing a largely-attended public meeting organised by the Visakha Ukku Parirakshana Porata Committee at Kurmannapalem, the actor-turned politician said disinvestment in public sector undertakings was not new and it was started way back in 1992. However, he said, the VSP was different from other PSUs as it was achieved following the sacrifice of 32 people during the Visakha Ukku Andhrula Hakku agitation in the early 1960s.
“I along with Jana Sena leader Nadendla Manohar went to Delhi and met Union Home Minister Amit Shah. We urged the Centre not to treat VSP like other PSUs. Jana Sena doesn’t have a single MP and its MLA crossed over to the ruling YSRC, still Amit Shah gave us a patient hearing,” he said.
There is no business which does not face loss. The steel plant, despite the Covid-19 pandemic, has earned profits in the last financial year, he pointed out.“The ruling YSRC, which has 22 MPS, did not demand captive mines for the Vizag steel plant and hardly raised the issue in Parliament,” he alleged.
The Jana Sena chief urged the YSRC government to form an all-party committee comprising leaders of trade unions and political parties for the protection of the steel plant. He set a deadline of one week for the State government to form the all-party committee. He said he will announce his action plan if the YSRC failed to announce the all-party committee within a week.
The YSRC should have demanded captive mines for the steel plant in lieu of support given to bills, he said and asked what the YSRC MPs were doing in Delhi. “The absence of captive mines makes a huge difference in the production cost of steel. The VSP came to the rescue of people by supplying liquid medical oxygen during Covid,” he recalled.