Left parties on Thursday decried a proposal by Rashtriya Ispat Nigam Ltd. to give prime land owned by the Visakhapatnam Steel Plant to South Korean steel major POSCO for a joint venture between the two.
Leaders from the Left parties said they would embark on an agitation if the State Government allowed the proposal to materialise.
Talks of a joint venture are already in progress between POSCO and RINL. The Left parties found fault with Industries Minister Mekapati Goutham Reddy’s reported statement that the proposal was under the consideration of the Central Government.
The leaders also highlighted a statement made by Union Steel Minister Dharmendra Pradhan who during a recent visit to the city reportedly said that VSP had no future if it did not accept the joint venture proposal by POSCO.
At separate press conferences, CPI(M) State Secretariat member Ch. Narsinga Rao and CPI State assistant secretary J.V. Satyanarayana Murthy said on Thursday that a layout had been prepared with 2,768 acres by the RINL management for allotment to POSCO for setting up a high-grade steel plant to cater to the needs of the automobile industry.
Leaders of CPI and CPI(M) said that though POSCO had dropped its proposal for a 10 million tonne steel plant in Odisha following stiff opposition from people who would be displaced by the project, the Centre was keen that RINL lands be gifted to POSCO for the joint venture proposal.
Stating that as per the detailed project report, 26,000 acres was acquired for VSP to have a total production of 16 million tonnes, they said the Centre should allow the company to expand in phases to its full rated capacity from the present 7.3 million tonne per annum by arranging loans from banks and financial institutions.
