HD Kumaraswamy denies Congress' allegation on sale of Vizag Steel plant

Bengaluru: A day after Congress General KC Venugopal alleged that 4200 contract workers from the Vizag Steel plant had been unfairly terminated and that the plant was going to be sold, Union Minister of Heavy Industries H.D.Kumaraswamy rubbished the charge saying the employees had been reinstated.

"Shri @kcvenugopalmpavare, 4,200 Visakhapatnam steel plant contract workers were reinstated on the 29 September within 48 hours of their termination as soon as it came to my notice. Rashtriya Ispat Nigam Limited (RINL) has reinstated 4,200 contract workers who were terminated on September 27. The reinstatement is effective from September 29," Kumaraswamy said in a post on X.

"Stop trying to politicise the issue for the sake of petty and vote-bank politics. You are rather misinformed as you have raked up this issue despite it being resolved to stoke tensions. The RINL management has also clarified that around 3,700 contract labour passes were cancelled and that they are working to restore the passes in the online system soon. The biometric database of the workers will also be reinstated. During discussions, all parties have agreed to maintain the existing gate pass system along with the necessary facilities," he added

The Minister said that he had visited Vizag and assured the workers that their concerns will be addressed.

"I have also visited the Vizag steel plant after taking over as the minister for steel and heavy industries, after holding discussions with the people's representatives, officials and workers, it has been promised that all their concerns and problems will be looked into after holding discussions with the PM @narendramodi Ji and Finance Minister @nsitharaman Ji. Your baseless allegations that the NDA government is trying to sell off the Vizag steel plant are far from the truth." the Minister posted

"Numbers don't lie Venugopal and here it is for your better understanding. Due to better management of PSUs, their share prices have tremendously increased in the last three years; adding the total market cap of all 81 listed PSUs (62 CPSEs, 12 Public Sector Banks, 3 Public Sector Insurance Companies, and IDBI Bank) has grown by 225 percent," he added

Earlier KC Venuopal had claimed that the workers had been terminated and the government was looking to privatise the plant.

"The unfair termination of 4,200 contract workers from Vizag Steel Plant exposes the BJP's anti labour outlook once again. There is no doubt that this is being done as a precursor to privatise the plant and hand it over to the PM's dear corporate cronies. The Congress condemns this and calls for the immediate reinstatement of these workers and urge both the Central and State governments to take swift corrective action. The Congress stands firmly by the workers and is determined to take all necessary measures to undo this unjust decision," he said.