The Visakha Ukku Porata Committee (VUPPC) has decided to picket the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) office in the city on February 13 to protest against the party State unit’s support to the Union government on its decision on ‘100% strategic sale of Visakhapatnam Steel Plant(VSP).’
The VUPPC leaders held a meeting at the Public Library here on Sunday, to chalk out the plan of action to mark the completion of the year-long relay hunger strikes launched by Steel workers, on the banner of the VUPPC, on February 12.
Interacting with the media, VUPPC leaders Ch. Narasinga Rao, Mantri Rajasekhar, J. Ramakrishna(AITUC), Y. Mastanappa (YSRTUC) and G. Ganapathi Reddy (HMS) condemned the attitude of the BJP State leadership in failing to speak out against the decision of the Centre, while all other political parties were opposing it. They said that meetings were being held at various district headquarters in the State to garner support for the agitation against privatisation of the VSP. Meetings would be held on January 26 in Guntur and on January 27 in Tirupati in this regard, they said.
A signature campaign, with the objective of gathering one crore signatures, would be held in Visakhapatnam city during the first week of February. A total of 365 workers, carrying flags, would participate in the hunger strike on February 12 to mark the completion of one year of relay hunger strikes for protection of the VSP from privatisation.
They said that the Central Trade Unions have called for a two-day nation wide strike on February 23 and 24 against the ‘handing over of public assets to corporate groups on a platter.’ A ‘Visakha bandh’ would be organised on February 23 as part of the nationwide agitation as also to protest against privatisation of the VSP. They appealed to all political parties in the State to cooperate in organising a Statewide bandh on that day.
