Naidu promises safety of Vizag Steel Plant

Visakhapatnam: Telugu Desam supremo N. Chandrababu Naidu said he would take the help of his coalition partners and save the Visakhapatnam Steel Plant from privatisation.

Addressing his Prajagalam meeting at Gajuwaka on Sunday evening, Naidu said it is the Telugu Desam movement that has put pressure on the Central government to withdraw the VSP privatization proposals.
“I myself addressed a meeting in Gajuwaka and appealed to Chief Minister Jagan Mohan Reddy to lead the movement. But he did not respond,” Naidu said. He reminded that the Atal Bihari government had also thought of privatizing the steel plant, but had successfully stopped it.

The TDP chief said that after the elections he will lead a team of alliance partners and ask the Center to completely drop the proposal to privatize the Visakhapatnam Steel Plant.
He said that Telugu speaking people are emotionally attached to the steel plant. “They still chant ‘Vishakha Ukku Andrula Hakku’,” he said.
Recalling his personal services to Visakhapatnam after it was devastated by Super Cyclone Hudhud, Naidu said his governance ensured rapid development after the cyclone and brought IIMs, IT companies and many other industries to the port city.
The former Chief Minister alleged that the YSRC government has turned Visakhapatnam into a drug trading hub in the name of making it the capital. He recalled the recent consignment of 25,000 kg of drugs at Visakhapatnam port.