In a continuation of the
ongoing agitation against the Centre's decision to privatise Andhra Pradesh's historic Visakhapatnam Steel Plant (VSP), nearly all the political parties and various other employee organisations in the state today staged an RTC-bus bandh demanding that the Centre withdraw the decision.
The bandh was organised in response to a call issued by the VSP workers unions. A demonstration was also organised at the Pandit Nehru Bus Station.
The YSRCP-led state government expressed solidarity with the plant's workers. It announced that the RTC buses in the state would not ply for the day till 1 pm. The buses were seen moored to depots, and passengers were seen filing out of the depots since they were unable to avail themselves of bus services.
(Chief Minister Jaganmohan Reddy has already asserted his stand on the issue. Earlier this month, the CM promised the Vizag Steel Plant workers' union that the state government would
fight the Centre's decision to privatise the plant, and would not allow the move to come to fruition.)
Speaking on the occasion, CPI national secretary K Narayana accused the Centre of taking "anti-people" decisions, and asked the saffron party's leaders how they would face the people of AP after taking away their jobs. The leader then urged the people of the state to "protect" the plant by mounting pressure on the Centre through continued agitations.
CPM secretary P Madhu, who also attended the protest, expressed his happiness at the momentum the anti-privatisation agitation was picking up, and warned the Centre that today's agitation was but a small part of a much larger struggle against the move. He added that the privatisation of the VSP would be an insult to those on whose sacrifices it had been built.
"Does the Centre not realise how unjust its decision is? It is an insult to the people who struggled for the establishment of the VSP, and to the farmers who gave up their lands so that the plant could be built," he said.
Meanwhile, CPM leader K Ramakrishna appealed to the CM to convene an official all-party meeting on the matter, pointing out that the matter was not a small one.
Leaders of the YSRCP, the TDP, ten Left parties and the Congress participated in the protest.
The Centre's decision to privatise the VSP has sparked massive agitations in the state - the move even prompted Former minister and TDP MLA from Visakhapatnam North, Ganta Srinivasa Rao, to
tender his resignation in protest, earlier this month