Will you privatise or revive steel plants? Congress asks Kumaraswamy

The Congress on Tuesday sought an assurance from Union Minister of Steel H D Kumaraswamy that the steel plants in the country would not be privatised. 

General Secretary of the All India Congress Committee Jairam Ramesh on made a tongue-in-cheek remark while seeking clarification on the future of the five steel plants. Dubbing Kumaraswamy the new Steel Minister of a “rusted” government, Ramesh demanded answers to a set of five questions on the future of the plants in Visakapatnam, Salem, Nagarnar, Bhadravathi, and Durgapur. 

In his post on ‘X’, Ramesh sought to draw attention of the newly sworn-in Steel minister to a proposal to privatise the Rashtriya Ispat Nigam Limited RINL). Questioning the rationale of the proposal, Ramesh pointed out that the steel plant was a source of livelihood for more than one lakh people. 

Ramesh further sought to remind the prime minister of the peaceful protest that the members of the RINL Unions had launched in the aftermath of the Cabinet Committee on Economic Affairs approving 100% privatisation of RINL, its joint ventures, and subsidiaries.

He said that the Central government’s neglect towards the plant had buried the once-thriving RINL in losses.

“Will Mr Kumaraswamy provide a written commitment that he will not sell the Vizag Steel Plant to the ‘one-third’ Pradhan Mantri’s industrialist friends,” Ramesh wrote on X. 

The decision of the Central government during Modi’s second term, initiating the closure of the Visvesvaraya Iron and Steel Plant in Bhadravathi - which is under the Steel Authority of India Limited (SAIL) - too came under attack by Congress.

Questioning the veracity of the government’s claims of the plant not having a captive iron ore source, Ramesh wrote, “It is a bold-faced lie, given that Bhadravathi is less than 250km from Ballari. In fact, a mining lease was allocated to SAIL in October 2011. Rather than attempting to shut down the plant, will Mr Kumaraswamy take urgent measures to revive it?”