Congress calls for a united struggle to prevent sale of Vizag steel plant

APCC president S. Sailajanath on Wednesday exhorted people to wage a united struggle to stop the Centre’s strategic sale of the Visakhapatnam Steel Plant, which he said was the pride of Andhra Pradesh. Addressing an all-party meeting chaired by APCC vice-president Sripathi Prakasm, he said it was time for all the parties to shed their political differences and come together onto a common platform to exert pressure on the Centre to give up privatisation of the VSP, which was achieved after a protracted struggle and supreme sacrifice made by people more than 50 years ago. Instead of fulfilling the promises made to the State at the time of bifurcation, which included a public sector sea port, the Centre was all out to privatise even the limited number of PSUs in the State, said Prakasam District Development Forum president Ch. Poura Samajam’s Prakasam district president G. Narasimha Rao said people across the country should come together against the “privatisation spree” of the Centre as it was akin to “selling the family silver.” Representatives of the TDP, the CPI, the CPI, and the PDSU attended the meet, and expressed their solidarity with those agitating for the cause.