Former joint director of Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI)-turned-political activist V V Lakshminarayana, who has been waiting for a right opportunity to get back into active politics, has found one in the Visakhapatnam Steel Plant privatisation issue.
On Tuesday, Lakshminarayana filed a public interest litigation petition in the high court, challenging the decision of the Centre in privatising the Visakhapatnam Stee Plant. The petition is expected to come up for hearing on Wednesday.
Lakshminarayana has been in touch with the leaders and activists agitating against the privatisation of the steel plant. He has held a series of meetings with leaders like Ganta Srinivasa Rao in this regard.
A few days ago, the former CBI JD wrote a letter to Prime Minister Narendra Modi on the issue. While supporting the Centre’s decision to privatise loss-making public sector undertakings in general, he pointed out that Visakhapatnam Steel Plant has its own uniqueness as it has been running with modern machinery and with international standards.
This steel plant had fetched Rs 43,700 crore to the government in the form of taxes, he said and suggested that the Centre can explore alternative ways to sustain the steel plant.
“It can be merged with National Mineral Development Corporation, which can later be merged with Steel Authority of India Ltd to make it a mega steel plant. Several other industries like KIOCL which have iron ore mines could also be merged into this mega steel plant,” he said.
Meanwhile, Union minister of state for finance Anurag Thakur wrote to Telugu Desam Party MP Galla Jayadev that the privatisation of steel plant would benefit all the stakeholders of the company. The centre would protect the interests of the steel plant workers, he assured.