The announcement of a Voluntary Retirement Scheme (VRS) for employees of Visakhapatnam Steel Plant (VSP) is a ploy of the BJP government at the Centre to hand over the VSP to South Korea-based POSCO, the CPI(M) alleged.
Demanding immediate scrapping of the VRS proposal for the steel plant employees, CPI(M) Greater Visakha City Committee secretary B. Ganga Rao sought that Chief Minister Y.S. Jagan Mohan Reddy write a letter to the Centre, opposing the proposal. The CPI(M) leader noted in a statement on Friday that a circular was issued to the employees on November 5 stating that those who have completed 40 years of age and 15 years of service were eligible for VRS.
“The Narendra Modi government has already decided to hand over thousands of acres of land, belonging to the VSP, to POSCO. The present move is intended to reduce the number of employees to pave the way for handing over of the plant to the South Korean firm. The failure of the Chief Minister to disclose the details of the meeting he had with representatives of POSCO in Vijayawada recently, indicates that the State government is also in favour of the proposal,” Mr. Ganga Rao alleged, adding that the opposition TDP also raise its voice against the VRS proposal.
The capacity of VSP was enhanced to 7.3 million tonnes recently and there is scope for raising it further to 11 million tonnes. At present, there are around 18,000 permanent and an additional 15,000 contract employees working in VSP. A notification was issued by the plant management recently for the recruitment of 188 Management Trainees and another notification for Junior Trainee/Operator posts is expected to be released soon.
The announcement of VRS at this juncture indicates that VSP is going to be handed over to POSCO, Mr. Ganga Rao said, adding that farmers sacrificed 23,000 acres of land for the plant’s construction. “There are still 8,500 ‘R’ cardholders and the VRS announcement will shatter their hopes of getting employment in VSP. The movement will have an adverse impact on the economy of VSP,” he said, appealing to the workers to oppose it.
