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Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister Chandrababu Naidu reprimanded the employees of the Visakhapatnam steel plant, accusing them of seeking salaries without working to run the plant ‘efficiently’.
At the Confederation of Indian Industry (CII) Partnership Summit in Visakhapatnam on Saturday, November 15, replying to a question about the steel plant Naidu said, “How can you sleep at home and not work? All of you have become like this. Will they simply pay your salaries? Don’t you have to work? Will the Union and state governments always give you money?”
Naidu was interacting with the media at the CII summit after announcing that Andhra Pradesh had received investment commitments to the tune of Rs 13 lakh crore.
Since 2021, employees and worker unions have been protesting the Union government’s plan of 100% strategic disinvestment of its shareholding in the Visakhapatnam Steel Plant, a public sector undertaking. All major political parties in the state have supported these protests.
In January this year, months after the TDP-Jana Sena-BJP coalition government came to power in Andhra Pradesh, the Union government approved a Rs 11,400 crore financial package to revive the plant.
“After our government came, on our insistence, a company on the BIFR (Board for Industrial and Financial Reconstruction) list was lifted, and nearly Rs 12,000 crore was infused into it,” Naidu said, taking credit for the revival package.
BIFR is a now-dissolved Union government institution that would identify ‘sick’ industrial companies and either help revive them or shut them down if unviable.
Naidu also stressed that the state government has provided subsidies in property tax, water tax, and electricity charges for the steel plant. “They even wanted us to provide security. All this is to make the plant viable, right? Now there’s a private factory coming up. They will be profitable within a year… Why are there losses here? You also need to work. Else from where will the government bring money and give. Isn’t this taxpayers’ money? Shouldn’t there be efficiency?” Naidu said, accusing critics of “threatening” the government over public sector companies.
Naidu was referring to the multinational company ArcelorMittal Nippon Steel (AM/NS) recently receiving environmental clearance for setting up a plant in Anakapalle near Vizag.
After the revival package was announced, the Vizag Steel Plant Protection Struggle Committee (Visakha Ukku Parirakshana Porata Samithi) had said that it was merely a temporary solution. They continued their struggle, demanding that the plant must have its own captive iron ore mines to really be strengthened.
At the CII summit, a visibly upset Naidu asked, “Should I come to people’s houses and inform them that the steel plant will not be privatised? Is this a joke to you? Some people are deliberately stoking this issue.”
He asked if people wanted to treat the steel plant like a “white elephant” without working to make it profitable.
“We also need to work, don’t even need to work hard. We need to run it systematically, professionally to make it viable,” he said, calling the steel plant a gold mine that was running in losses because of employees’ inefficiency.
He also said that “culture” is important to bring in investments. “Investors are coming to Vizag because there are good people. They will not go to a place where there are rowdies or thieves.”
Naidu also mentioned that recently his government invoked preventive detention against some people who were not allowing new industries to be set up, and said that this resolved everything.
He mentioned that he would review the Vizag steel plant’s performance every three months.
