<p>Telangana Today reported that Former Energy Secretary Dr EAS Sarma has urged the Andhra Pradesh government to question the Centre’s privatization policy in general and privatization of Visakhapatnam steel plant in particular. In a letter addressed to Chief Minister Mr YS Jaganmohan Reddy, noted that despite the AP government writing to the Centre to stop privatization of VSP, the Centre appeared to be moving fast on disinvesting its 100 per cent equity share in the plant. He wrote “I am not sure whether the State is aware of the way the Centre is moving fast towards privatizing VSP. The Centre has signed a MoU with POSCO to allow that company to be an important shareholder in VSP.”</p><p>He added “Meanwhile, the Adani Group has acquired a dominant share of the Gangavaram Port, which is the gateway to VSP. I felt surprised that the State government should also fall in line meekly and dole out its own 11% share in Gangavaram Port without going through the competitive bidding route as it ought to have. One gets the impression that the State has joined hands with the Centre in creating an environment conducive to privatization of VSP against the people’s wishes. If this is correct, what the State is doing is highly objectionable.”</p><p>Dr Sarma pointed out that privatization of VSP would introduce uncertainty in the future of more than 17,000 employees and would permanently close the door for reservations for the SC, ST & OBCs.</p><p>Recalling that it was as a result of a persistent public agitation that took place in north AP that the Centre was originally forced to decide on setting up a steel plant in the public sector at Visakhapatnam in the late 1960s and the early seventies, he said that the State that acquired more than 20,000 acres of land for the steel plant under the erstwhile land acquisition law of 1894. He wrote “Under that Act, private land could be acquired only for a public purpose, a corporation owned or controlled by the State. Consequently, the Centre is prohibited from transferring the ownership of the steel plant now to a private company. Such a unilateral decision of the Centre to privatize VSP would also implicitly constitute a breach of the public trust and the State should make this abundantly clear to the Centre.”</p><p>Dr Sarma added “In the normal course, since the State has as much of a stake as the Centre, if not more, in the VSP, the Centre ought to have consulted the State before taking such a precipitate decision. Considering the background of the establishment of the VSP, the matter ought to have been discussed both in the Parliament and in the State legislature. By not complying with this basic norm of a democratic way of taking such an important decision, the Centre has blatantly violated the spirit of federalism that lies at the core of the basic structure of the Constitution. Keeping in view the long-term implications of this, the State should question the Centre’s approach.”</p><p>Since it was the State that invoked its authority under the 1894 land acquisition Act to acquire the lands, and since it was the original land owners who were forced to part with their lands ostensibly for a “public purpose”, the lands in question should strictly revert to the State and the land owners when a private company takes over VSP and both the State and the farmers should be fully compensated for it, he felt.</p><p>In this connection, Dr. Sarma referred to the note of the claim put forward by the Tamil Nadu Finance Minister at a recent Finance Ministers’ meeting convened by the union Finance Minister that “during the privatization of such organizations, the State should justly be compensated for the land either through payment of the land cost at the current market value or through an equivalent equity stake in the new entity.</p><p>AP government should likewise demand that the Centre should compensate the State, if and when VSP is privatized, he suggested, and held that privatization of the public sector enterprises of the Centre as well as the State were prima facie unconstitutional.</p>
<p>Telangana Today reported that Former Energy Secretary Dr EAS Sarma has urged the Andhra Pradesh government to question the Centre’s privatization policy in general and privatization of Visakhapatnam steel plant in particular. In a letter addressed to Chief Minister Mr YS Jaganmohan Reddy, noted that despite the AP government writing to the Centre to stop privatization of VSP, the Centre appeared to be moving fast on disinvesting its 100 per cent equity share in the plant. He wrote “I am not sure whether the State is aware of the way the Centre is moving fast towards privatizing VSP. The Centre has signed a MoU with POSCO to allow that company to be an important shareholder in VSP.”</p><p>He added “Meanwhile, the Adani Group has acquired a dominant share of the Gangavaram Port, which is the gateway to VSP. I felt surprised that the State government should also fall in line meekly and dole out its own 11% share in Gangavaram Port without going through the competitive bidding route as it ought to have. One gets the impression that the State has joined hands with the Centre in creating an environment conducive to privatization of VSP against the people’s wishes. If this is correct, what the State is doing is highly objectionable.”</p><p>Dr Sarma pointed out that privatization of VSP would introduce uncertainty in the future of more than 17,000 employees and would permanently close the door for reservations for the SC, ST & OBCs.</p><p>Recalling that it was as a result of a persistent public agitation that took place in north AP that the Centre was originally forced to decide on setting up a steel plant in the public sector at Visakhapatnam in the late 1960s and the early seventies, he said that the State that acquired more than 20,000 acres of land for the steel plant under the erstwhile land acquisition law of 1894. He wrote “Under that Act, private land could be acquired only for a public purpose, a corporation owned or controlled by the State. Consequently, the Centre is prohibited from transferring the ownership of the steel plant now to a private company. Such a unilateral decision of the Centre to privatize VSP would also implicitly constitute a breach of the public trust and the State should make this abundantly clear to the Centre.”</p><p>Dr Sarma added “In the normal course, since the State has as much of a stake as the Centre, if not more, in the VSP, the Centre ought to have consulted the State before taking such a precipitate decision. Considering the background of the establishment of the VSP, the matter ought to have been discussed both in the Parliament and in the State legislature. By not complying with this basic norm of a democratic way of taking such an important decision, the Centre has blatantly violated the spirit of federalism that lies at the core of the basic structure of the Constitution. Keeping in view the long-term implications of this, the State should question the Centre’s approach.”</p><p>Since it was the State that invoked its authority under the 1894 land acquisition Act to acquire the lands, and since it was the original land owners who were forced to part with their lands ostensibly for a “public purpose”, the lands in question should strictly revert to the State and the land owners when a private company takes over VSP and both the State and the farmers should be fully compensated for it, he felt.</p><p>In this connection, Dr. Sarma referred to the note of the claim put forward by the Tamil Nadu Finance Minister at a recent Finance Ministers’ meeting convened by the union Finance Minister that “during the privatization of such organizations, the State should justly be compensated for the land either through payment of the land cost at the current market value or through an equivalent equity stake in the new entity.</p><p>AP government should likewise demand that the Centre should compensate the State, if and when VSP is privatized, he suggested, and held that privatization of the public sector enterprises of the Centre as well as the State were prima facie unconstitutional.</p>
