On Saturday, the agitation against the move to privatise the Vizag Steel Plant completes one year. To mark the occasion, the employees have decided to organise Jail Bharo on Sunday. In addition, they are planning to hold a protest carrying 365 flags. A move to collect one crore signatues is also being planned.
The agitation has largely been political and the leaders have kept the politicians and political parties at arms’ length from the protests. The employees and the civil society organisations, which have launched the agitation, have also criticised the political parties of adopting double standards. Despite this, the political parties are supporting the agitation. Jana Sena chief Pawan Kalyan, former Joint Director of the CBI VV Lakshminarayana and several others extended their support to the agitation.
The Vizag Steel Plant was set up due to the massive agitations in the 1960s by the people of Andhra Pradesh. A youth, identified as Amrutha Rao has fasted for the VSP in Vizag and as many as 32 persons lost their lives in the police firing on the protesters. This emotional connect of the people is mainly driving the protests against privatisation.
The Central Government is planning to sell off the VSP to the Posco company. The employees allege that the Posco was eyeing the 8000 acres of land in the possession of the VSP. The plant has 17500 employees and an equal number of people are benefited indirectly. The project is producing 7.1 million tonnes of steel annually.