'Stop or resign & go to jail': Naidu tells AP CM Reddy to stop steel plant privatisation

Former Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister N Chandrababu Naidu (NCB) demanded the current Chief Minister YS Jagan Mohan Reddy to take responsibility and lead the ongoing Steel Plant agitation for saving prestigious 'Visakha Steel Plant' from the threat of 'Privatisation'. Naidu advised Reddy to 'stop the sale of the steel plant or resign and go to jail or wherever' he would like to go.

“If the YCP continued its games of betrayal against the people’s sentiments even now, the people of the state would rise in revolt and they would not allow the ruling party leaders to move on the roads,” the TDP chief said to ANI.

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While addressing a press conference, Naidu also advised CM Reddy and his party leaders to make an honest effort like Palla Srinivasa Rao whose hunger strike reached 8th day on Tuesday.

“Not a single Minister has visited or enquired about his health till now. Palla’s weight has come down by 10 Kg already. But the false protesters were gaining weight on the other hand. The Chief Minister was not still opening his mouth on the steel plant issue. Jagan Reddy was sitting silently in his Tadepalli residence like a robber bitten by a scorpion,” he said reported ANI.

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Protesting against Visakhapatnam Steel Plant's privatisation proposal, former TDP MLA Palla Srinivasa Rao is on a fast unto death for the past eight days. On Tuesday, Rao was admitted to the hospital. However, he mentioned he'll continue the fast.

The TDP chief further slammed YSRCP MP Vijay Sai Reddy for ‘counselling’ people of the state in a manner that they should accept the reality of the privatisation of the steel plant. Naidu asserted that the steel plant has been supporting over 5 lakh people’s livelihoods. 

READ | AP CM Jagan Reddy Write To PM Modi, Urges To Reconsider Disinvestment Of Vizag Steel Plant

AP CM Jagan Reddy Writes To PM Modi

Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister YS Jagan Mohan Reddy has written a letter to Prime Minister Narendra Modi requesting the Government of India to reconsider its plan of disinvestment of the Visakhapatnam Steel Plant. The Cabinet Committee on Economic Affairs (CCEA) has given approval for 100% strategic disinvestment of Rashtriya Ispat Nigam Limited (RINL) including the giving up of management control by way of privatisation. RINL is corporate entity of Visakhapatnam Steel Plant Ltd. 

"Sir, I can emphatically say that the plant will again become a profitable venture given some support from the Government of India instead of taking the disinvestment route," Jagan Reddy said in the letter to PM.

READ | TDP Leader Ganta Srinivasa Rao Resigns In Protest Against Privatisation Of Vizag Steel

TDP Leader Ganta Srinivasa Rao Resigns

On February 7, TDP MLA Ganta Srinivasa Rao resigned from his post in protest against the proposed privatisation of the Visakhapatnam steel plant. Stating that locals cannot digest the plant's privatisation, Rao called on Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister YS Jagan Mohan Reddy to pressurise PM Narendra Modi to revoke the decision. 

(With ANI Inputs)