Anantapur: Stir for steel plant intensifies

Anantapur: The agitation demanding a steel plant is intensifying in Kadapa district with the slogan "Kadapa Ukku Rayalaseema Hak-ku".

The Steel Plant Sadhana Samiti, comprising a large number of  youths, mostly engineering graduates, has been leading the agitation to mount  pressure on the government to set up a steel plant in Kadapa district.

Dozens of engineering graduates and other students from Proddutur vowed to fight on the long pending demand for the steel plant.

Though the Brahmani Steel Plant was planned to be set up by former mining baron Gali Janardhan Reddy in 2007, the state government had cancelled allotment of lands following irregularities three years ago.

About 10,000 acres was acquired and no major industry was contemplated. The project would have absorbed the labour available in the perennially drought-hit area.

The AP Re-Organisation Act 2014, which promised the setting up of a steel plant in the public sector, had raised hopes.

Legal hurdles made the government consider the alternatives and plants were proposed to be set up at locations other than the land taken away from Brahmani Steel.

SAIL authorities sought a minimum of 2,000 acre to set up the unit but no steps have been initiated, said Sadhana Samiti convener G.V. Praveen Kumar Reddy,  an engineering graduate.

"The region is already reeling under severe drought and poor job opportunities.  The steel plant  would provide employment for many skilled and unskilled youth," said Mr Praveen Kumar Reddy. An office was set at Proddutur to fight the case.

"The agitation would be carried on till the steel plant is set up in the district and also in remote interior parts of the district. This is a constitutionally backed assurance as incorporated in AP Reorganization Act 2014," he recalled.