Visakhapatnam: Trade unions stage protest

Visakhapatnam : Marking 1,100 days of Ukku stir, Visakhapatnam Steel Plant (VSP) employees and trade union leaders organised a protest here on Friday.

More than 50 percent of employees of the plant reached the relay hunger strike camp to take part in the protest organised at Kurmannapalem junction. Opposing the Union government’s decision, the agitators raised slogans against the Central government. They demanded the BJP led Union government not to privatise the VSP under any circumstances.

Speaking on the occasion, INTUC president Neerukonda Ramachandra Rao demanded that the VSP should be continued in the public sector. If not possible, he also appealed to the BJP government to merge in SAIL.

Chairman of Visakha Ukku Parirakshana Porata Committee (VUPPC) D Adinarayana stated that the Union government should withdraw from its decision to sell the VSP before the general elections.

Otherwise, the people would teach a befitting lesson to the political parties. Representatives of the VUPPC mentioned that the state government and political parties should swing into action to save the VSP. They said it is only the biggest industry in Andhra Pradesh after the bifurcation of the state.