As resistance to the Centre's decision to privatise Andhra Pradesh's historic Visakhapatnam Steel Plant (VSP) continues to swell, the Telangana government today also extended its support to the YSR Congress Party regime's efforts to oppose the move.
In a significant show of solidarity with its neighbouring state, Telangana IT and Industries Minister K T Rama Rao stated that he would personally join the protests against the privatisation of the VSP.
He said, "If necessary, I will go to Visakhapatnam myself to join the agitation of the workers at the plant. However, I hope that the AP government too will extend its support to the Telangana government in its fight against similar problems faced by us in the future."
Expressing his concern that the Modi government was "likely to soon disinvest" from BSNL, the Singareni Collieries Company Limited and other profit-making PSUs, the minister explained, "This is not Andhra Pradesh's fight alone. The Centre's inclination to prop up corporates at the cost of the common people of the nation is a danger to us all. We must resist such decisions as they will result in massive job loss, and the staff and employees of the PSUs will be left penury-struck. So, Telangana will give all its support to AP as soon as we have discussed the plan to do so with Chief Minister K Chandrashekar Rao. But, in return, we expect the AP regime to also stand by us in the face of similar struggles."
While Andhra Pradesh, especially Visakhapatnam, has been seeing continuous
protests against the disinvestment decision for some time now, the agitations have picked up even more momentum ever since Union Finance Minister
Nirmala Sitharaman's statement on the matter left many in the state incensed. It is pertinent to mention here that the statement prompted the workers of the VSP to confine top official Venugopal Rao in his office on the plant's premises for nearly six hours.