Terminated contract workers in Vizag steel plant reinstated: Union minister Kumaraswamy

The Steel Minister also said he had visited the plant and met management and employees and had promised to address their concern safter holding discussions with the Prime Minister and Finance MInister.

New Delhi: Union Steel Minister H D Kumaraswamy on Thursday said that the 4,200 contract workers in the Visakhapatnam steel plant who had been terminated were reinstated within 48 hours.

"...4,200 Visakhapatnam steel plant contract workers were reinstated on 29th September within 48 hours of their termination as soon as it came to my notice. Rashtriya Ispat Nigam Limited (RINL) has reinstated 4,200 contract workers who were terminated on September 27. The reinstatement is effective from September 29 (sic)," the Minister posted on social media platform X.

Kumaraswamy was replying to Congress General Secretary (Organisation) K C Venugopal's post on X.

The Congress leader had said that, "The unfair termination of 4,200 contract workers from Vizag Steel Plant exposes the BJP’s anti labour outlook once again. There is no doubt that this is being done as a precursor to privatise the plant and hand it over to the PM’s dear corporate cronies. The Congress condemns this and calls for the immediate reinstatement of these workers and urge both the Central and State governments to take swift corrective action. (sic)"

Reacting to this, the Steel Minister said, "Stop trying to politicise the issue for the sake of petty and vote bank politics. You are rather misinformed as you have raked up this issue despite it being resolved to stoke tensions. The RINL (Rashtriya Ispat Nigam Ltd, also known as Vizag Steel), management has also clarified that around 3,700 contract labour passes were cancelled and that they are working to restore the passes in the online system soon. The biometric database of the workers will also be reinstated. During discussions, all parties have agreed to maintain the existing gate pass system along with the necessary facilities. (sic)"

The Steel Minister also said he had visited the plant and met management and employees and promised to address their concern safter holding discussions with the Prime Minister and Finance MInister.

Dismissing the Congress leader's allegation that the NDA government was trying to sell off the Vizag steel plant, the Steel Minister said the performance of the public sector undertaking under the NDA was extremely good.

"Due to better management of PSUs, their share prices have tremendously increased in the last three years, adding the total market cap of all 81 listed PSUs (62 CPSEs, 12 Public Sector Banks, 3 Public Sector Insurance Companies, and IDBI Bank) has grown by 225 percent (sic)," the Minister posted.

"The performance of PSU stocks under former Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee-led NDA government, via-a-vis the 10 years (2004-09) of UPA rule, during 1999-2004 (NDA): PSU index soared over 300 per cent, vastly outperforming the BSE Sensex's 70 per cent gain. During 2004-09 (UPA I): The PSU index rose by 60 per cent, but this was only half the growth rate of the Sensex. During 2009-14 (UPA II): The PSU index declined by 6 per cent, while the benchmark surged by 73 per cent (sic)," Kumaraswamy said.

"These numbers are a testimony to the fact that under the UPA regime there was a systematic dismantling of the PSUs whereas under the NDA regime they have been thriving under the leadership and vision of PM Shri Narendra Modi Ji," the Minister posted.