Salem Steel Plant has been incurring loss for last 5 years: Centre

CHENNAI: In what could be seen as an attempt to justify its disinvestment policy, the Union ministry of steel has said that the PSU in Salem was a loss making unit of the Steel Authority of India Limited. It has been consistently making losses for the last five years despite investment of around Rs 2,200 crore by SAIL under the modernization and expansion project.
“The Union government has accorded in-principle approval for strategic disinvestment of Salem plant,” Union minister of state for steel Vishnu Deo Sai answered in response to PMK leader Anbumani Ramadoss’ query in Rajya Sabha.
In August last, the Centre announced that except Bhilai Steel Plant in Chhattisgarh, SAIL’s other plants too reported negative growth last year. Along with Salem, Durgapur (West Bengal), Rourkela (Odisha), Bokaro (Jharkhand), IISCO (West Bengal), Alloys (West Bengal), Visvesvaraya Iron and Steel (Karnataka) and Chandrapur Ferro-Alloy (Maharashtra) have taken the overall losses to the tune of Rs 7,198 crore.
Meanwhile, DMK treasurer and leader of opposition M K Stalin, in a statement, wanted Union minister of state Pon Radhakrishnan, who is from Tamil Nadu, to put pressure on the Centre and prevent the privatisation of the Salem Steel Plant.
PMK founder leader S Ramadoss urged the Tamil Nadu government to oppose the Centre’s move to privatize Salem Steel Plan. In a statement on Wednesday, Ramadoss suggested that the government should take up modernisation of the plant, and a committee of TN ministers should go to New Delhi and meet Prime Minister Narendra Modi on this issue.
The Centre is going ahead with the disinvestment of Salem Steel Plant, Ramadoss said, even though TN political parties have been speaking out against it and workers have been staging protests.
He alleged that the Centre has intensified its efforts on this front as the TN government has not strongly expressed its opposition to it.
He recalled that in August this year, state industries minister M C Sampath, during the debate on demands for grants to the industries department in the TN assembly, had asserted that chief minister J Jayalalithaa would not allow the Salem Steel Plant to fall into private hands.
Just as the state acquired a stake in Neyveli Lignite Corporation when the Centre attempted to privatise it, the TN government should act in the same manner in case of Salem Steel Plant as well, Ramadoss said. He added that the move to privatise the plant would affect 2,000 workers.
If Centre persists with its disinvestment plan, the PMK would organise peaceful protests along with residents of Salem and the steel plant workers, he said.
From September onwards, Salem Steel Plant workers have been staging demonstrations including a ‘tool down’ agitation, and also wore black badges.