The Central government has taken a backward step in its plans to privatise the prestigious Visakhapatnam Steel Plant. As the protests are being held in Visakhapatnam for the past two years against privatisation, Union Minister of state for steel, Faggan Singh Kulaste, made quite interesting and contradicting comments.

The Minister was in Visakhapatnam on Thursday to participate in the Rozgar Mela at Kalavani Auditorium. The Minister said that the Centre had not taken steps to privatise the steel plant. “There is no plan to privatise the steel plant immediately. We are not thinking on those lines right now,” the Minister said.

He further said that the Central government was now working to strengthen the Rastriya Isptat Nigam Limited (RINL), which owns the steel plant. He also announced that the government is opening some new divisions in the steel plant. He also said that the government was working on increasing the supply of coal and other raw material for the steel plant.

The Minister also said that the government was working on increasing the production capacity of the plant. The government would hold talks with the plant management, trade unions and other stakeholders shortly, the minister said.

The Minister came down heavily on Telangana’s Bharat Rashtra Samithi for its claims on participating in the bids for the steel plant. He said that the bids were invited for expression of interest to strengthen the financial position of the steel plant.

The Minister said that the BRS and its chief KCR were playing politics with the steel plant. He told the media persons that the government would work hard to strengthen the steel plant and not to privatise at this point of time.