Visakhapatnam: Former JD VV Laxmi Narayana of CBI goes for crowd funding to save Vizag steel plant
Former JD of CBI VV Lakshminarayana submitting bid towards EoI at VSP office in Visakhapatnam on Saturday
Visakhapatnam : The efforts of VSP to mobilise funds for repair of the blast furnaces and make them operational is taking several twists and turns. While the Telangana Government took a U-turn on its hyped decision to participate in the bid and invest Rs 5,000 crore, in a surprise move, former Joint Director (JD) of the CBI VV Lakshminarayana submitted an Expression of Interest (EoI).
The former JD's registration for the EoI was done through a private firm. Terming the Visakhapatnam Steel Plant as the pride of Andhra people, Lakshminarayana said that the plant needs to be protected from being privatised and hence he decided to participate in the bidding.
The VSP is still an infant, he said. He further said that the government may believe in 'clean shave' of the steel plant, but he believes in 'clear save' and that is the reason why he decided to pitch in. The next step, he said, would be focused on pooling of funds once the bid is declared qualified.
Talking about raising funds for the VSP, Lakshminarayana said that crowd funding and digital transfer systems would be considered. "Even if 8.5 crore Telugu people contribute Rs100 a month, it would help in saving VSP from strategic sale with a collection of Rs 850 crore within a few months," he added.
Making it clear that his move was not a political stunt, Lakshminarayana said his aim was to protect Rashtriya Ispat Nigam Ltd (RINL) from getting passed on to private players. If the bidding does not get qualified, still he would continue his fight in the court to protect it from being privatised, he stated.
He said, "Since there are a number of on-going infrastructure projects in Telangana, I have been requesting the Telangana government to get raw material from VSP to cater to their project requirements so that it would be a win-win situation. Also, I have met Telangana Chief Minister K Chandrashekar Rao and submitted a request towards this direction as well," he said.