The Hindu Business Line : AITUC to back Vizag steel plant capacity expansion

The All-India Trade Union Congress (AITUC) has pledged its support to the capacity expansion project of the Visakhapatnam Steel Plant and promised to strive for securing captive iron ore mines for the plant.

The promise was made by Mr Gurdas Das Gupta, MP and General Secretary of the AITUC, at the inaugural session of the three-day national council meet of the AITUC in Ukkunagaram, Visakhapatnam, on Monday.

He was responding to a complaint by the plant's Chairman and Managing Director, Mr Y. Sivasagara Rao, that the lack of captive iron ore mines was proving to be a major handicap for the plant.

Reiterating the resolve of the AITUC for strengthening public sector units in the country, Mr Das Gupta said that in the late 90s when the Visakhapatnam Steel Plant was in a bad shape and there was a proposal to refer it to the Board of Industrial & Financial Reconstruction, the AITUC and other unions had taken up its cause and subsequently the plant had turned around and was at present in a position to take up capacity expansion on its own.

"The AITUC will fully support the project. It will also strive for securing iron ore for the plant for capacity expansion to 15 million tonnes, as the CMD had sought," he said.

Contract workers

He said the contract labourers in the steel plant should be given a fair deal. "An unskilled worker, if he is hired on contract basis, gets Rs 3,000. The same worker, if he is permanent, gets Rs 8,000. There is no justice. We condemn the growing trend of contractualisation, especially in the public sector," he said.

Earlier, Mr Y. Sivasagara Rao, CMD of the steel plant, said the plant had overcome all obstacles and achieved a remarkable turnaround. "We are doubling the capacity at a cost of Rs 8,600 crore, to be met out of our internal resources, and we want to enhance it to 15 million tonnes ultimately. We have the infrastructure and other requirements. But we have a major constraint as we do not have captive iron ore mines. Our competitors in the private sector are getting the ore very cheaply and we are paying more than Rs 2,000 per tonne. We expect the support of Mr Das Gupta and others in our efforts to overcome the problem," he said.

Mr V.V Rama Rao, General Secretary of AITUC, Visakhapatnam, Mr Pramod Gogoi, President, AITUC, Mr H. Mahadevan, Deputy General Secretary, and others spoke on the occasion.

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