Students need to come forward to protect VSP from privatisation, say union leaders

Members of various student organisations at a meeting organised to discuss the VSP privatisation issue at Visakhapatnam on Friday.
| Photo Credit: V. Raju

Members from various student unions organised a meeting to discuss their plans to protect the Visakhapatnam Steel Plant (VSP) from privatisation, at Alluri Vignana Kendram at Dabagardens in Visakhapatnam on Friday.

The meeting was attended by K.S. Chalam, former vice-chancellor of the Dravidian University, Kolla Rajmohan, former general secretary of Andhra Medical College students’ union, who led the protests to set up the steel plant, Ch. Narsinga Rao, Centre of Indian Trade Unions (CITU) State general secretary, leaders from Students’ Federation of India (SFI) and All India Students’ Federation (AISF).

During the meeting, the members recalled the agitation demanding the steel plant at Visakhapatnam on November 1, 1966, which led to the death of 32 people. They also said that around one lakh families are directly and indirectly dependant on VSP, adding that the Centre has extended support to all steel plants in the country except VSP.

SFI district secretary L.J. Naidu also questioned why the State government failed to convince the Centre to merge VSP with SAIL. They highlighted that students from various parts of the State have earlier come together to raise their voices for the steel plant, urging to the youth to come forward to protect the plant.