While the agitations from various trade unions, employee associations and political parties are still going on, Modi-led central government on Wednesday hinted upon a South Korean iron manufacturing company taking over Rashtriya Ispat Nigam Limited in Visakhapatnam, better known as Visakhapatnam Steel Plant.
According to Union Minister for Steel Dharmendra Pradhan’s written reply to YSRC MP Vijayasai Reddy’s query, a joint team of POSCO and Korean car manufacturer Hyundai visited the steel plant on Wednesday. The minister further confirmed that though there is no final agreement on the share of POSCO in the steel plant. The non-binding agreement was reached in 2019.
As per MoU, POSCO showed interest to have more than 50% shareholding and that a joint working group has also been formed to exchange information and details for reaching a final deal. It can be recalled that a panel of officials from POSCO visited RINL at least three times on July 9 and September 23 in 2019, and February 2020 in connection with setting up the plant.
This clarification from the union minister came as a shock to the labour unions and the AP political parties who are fighting against the central government’s decision.
