A roundtable by political parties and trade unions here on Wednesday strongly condemned attempts by the NDA government to put pressure on the Rahstriya Ispat Nigam Limited to allot 3,500 acres for setting up a Greenfield steel plant as a joint venture by Posco or Hyundai.
The meeting unanimously resolved to stage a demonstration at GVMC Gandhi statue on July 27 to bring pressure on the Centre to drop the idea. “While RINL’s equity will be its unused land, one of the South Korean steelmakers will invest in the Greenfield steel plant,” CPI (M) city president M. Ganga Rao said.
Besides Mr. Ganga Rao, CPI State assistant secretary J.V. Satyanarayana Murthy, John Wesley from YSR Congress Party, Pedada Ramani from the Congress, Mantri Rajasekhar from INTUC, R.K.S.V. Kumar from CITU, B. Pydiraju from TNTUC and others attended.
The meeting felt that the joint venture proposal would subsequently lead to acquisition of RINL properties by the foreign collaborator. The participants said that the Centre should drop disinvestment of RINL and allow the public sector unit to expand on its own by mobilising funds from the financial institutions.
They also demanded immediate allotment of captive iron ore mines to reduce production cost of steel by RINL.