Rajya Sabha members flay Centre over SSP disinvestment

Last week, SAIL said the government has given in-principle approval for strategic disinvestment in Salem Steel Plant (SSP), Visvesvaraya Iron and Steel Plant and Alloy Steel Plant in Durgapur. Raising the issue during Zero Hour, Tiruchi Siva (DMK) said he had given a notice under Rule 267 on the disinvestment of SSP as it is a “very serious issue”. He said the government on the advice of the Niti Aayog has given an in-principle approval of the disinvestment, which will have a “bad impact” on the industrial development of the region. SSP is a profit making plant and its disinvestment will impact jobs of 2,500 full-time and 5,000 contract employees, Siva said. T K Rangarajan of CPI(M) too raised the issue saying the steel plant should not be privatised. Vijila Sathyanath (AIADMK) said that she and her party “strongly ob-ject” to the move to disinvest SAIL’s stake in SSP. B K Hariprasad (Cong) also raised the issue of strategic disinvestment in the SAIL subsidiaries.