VSP employees block road to prevent NITI Aayog CEO from entering Vizag

Visakhapatnam: Representatives of the Visakha Ukku Parirakshana Porata Committee (VUPPC) members warned that the Centre's representatives who were involved in the privatisation of Visakhapatnam Steel Plant (VSP) will not be allowed to visit Visakhapatnam.

VSP employees and union leaders made a concerted effort to stop NITI Aayog chief executive officer Amitabh Kant from visiting Vizag on Thursday.

The NITI Aayog CEO reached Visakhapatnam on Thursday to attend an event at the MedTech Zone located near VSP. The CEO stayed at the airport for a long time after learning that a large number of VSP employees gathered to block the road.

Authorities then took the CEO on another route to the MedTech Zone. Hundreds of employees raised slogans against him and shouted 'CEO go back'. Speaking on the occasion, representatives of VUPPC said that Modi's government was handing over public sector units to the private players based on the NITI Aayog suggestions. They said blocking the CEO tour indicates resisting government's policies by the VSP employees.

They explained that all the service programmes done by private companies are done only for tax evasion and it would be meaningless to assume that private companies would do any good to their employees.

Visakha Ukku Parirakshana Porata Committee Chairman D Adinarayana, co-convener Gandham Venkatrao and members J Rama Krishna, YT Das, Y Mastanappa, D Suresh Babu among others participated in the protest.