Police detain farmers' union members protesting against privatisation of Vizag Steel Plant in Andhra Pradesh

Members of farmers' unions who were protesting against the privatisation of the Visakhapatnam Steel Plant in Vijayawada were detained by the local police on Wednesday.

The protestors in huge numbers shouted slogans against the government's move to privatise the steel plant in Vishakapatnam.

Earlier Bharat Rashtra Samithi (BRS) working president KT Rama Rao said that BRS would oppose the Central Government's move to privatise the steel plant.


In an open letter to the Union Government, KTR said that the Narendra Modi government's "evil plans" to sell off the VSP to private players, the reasons for the steel plant's losses, and ways in which the plant could be revived.

Earlier in the month of April, Andhra Pradesh Bharat Rashtra Samithi (BRS) chief Thota Chandrasekhar met Steel Plant Workers Union leaders and extended the party's support to the union's relay hunger strike against the privatization of Vizag Steel Plant.

"BRS is opposing privatization of Vizag steel plant. In 2021, the Government of India decided to privatize the Vizag steel plant. This steel plant provides livelihood to lakhs of people including its 30,000 employees. Not just this steel plant, the BRS party will oppose the privatization of any company," he told ANI.

The Cabinet Committee of Economic Affairs (CCEA) in the year 2021 approved 100 per cent disinvestment in Rashtriya Ispat Nigam Limited (RINL)- Vizag Steel Plant.