Visakhapatnam: Condemning the government’s renewed push to privatise the Visakhapatnam Steel Plant (VSP) strongly, the Human Rights Forum (HRF) objected to the recent call for Expressions of Interest (EoI) from private agencies to take over operation and maintenance of 34 critical departments.

Calling for the EoI to take over critical departments such as blast furnace systems, slag granulation plants, mines, BF cooling and furnace equipment and charging units is a clear indication of dismantling the public sector character of the VSP, the HRF members pointed out.

This is a deliberate attempt to handover a national asset, built through the struggles and sacrifices of lakhs of people, to private players at throwaway prices. “What is underway is plunder, it is nothing less than selling away the Steel Plant piece by piece,” HRF AP state president KV Jagannadha Rao and HRF AP and TG coordination committee member VS Krishna emphasised.

Handing over such critical operations to private contractors is not only anti-worker but unlawful. The Factories Act and various safety regulations clearly mandate permanent, trained and experienced workers in hazardous units, the HRF members emphasised. “Outsourcing these functions undermines safety, puts workers’ lives at risk, and endangers surrounding communities.

For private contractors, profit alone dictates operations, workers’ safety will be compromised, and accountability in the event of accidents will be deliberately blurred.

We are already seeing the deadly consequences of this approach in the frequent accidents occurring with fatal regularity in industrial units across Anakapalli and Visakhapatnam districts,” they remarked.

Even as thousands of contract workers at VSP have been terminated and many regular workers and highly qualified officers eased out, the HRF members said, this is not just about jobs being lost. Visakha Steel is not merely an industrial unit. It is the living embodiment of a historic and sustained people’sstruggle, they mentioned.

The hypocrisy and doublespeak of the ruling party’s elected representatives in the matter is truly ‘shameless’. Time and again they have publicly postured as defenders of the Steel Plant but have only abetted privatisation moves. With this, their betrayal of people’s trust is complete, the HRF members criticised.

HRF believes that the Visakha Steel Plant has every potential to flourish in public ownership if given proper support, policy backing and investment.

“We demand the immediate withdrawal of all privatisation plans for VSP and reinstatement of contract and other workers. We call for wide ranging, democratic discussions by the government with unions on the running of the plant and immediate steps taken to supply required raw material. There must be a clear, unambiguous and firm commitment by the Central and State governments to continue VSP as a public sector enterprise,” they added.