Bhubaneswar: Former Union Minister Srikant Jena today described the disinvestment proposal of Neelachal Ispat Nigam Limited (NINL) as a big conspiracy against the interest of Odisha by the Modi and Naveen Patnaik government.
Addressing the media here, Jena dared the Chief Minister and BJP leaders for a public debate over the privatization of the NINL, a joint venture company of six public sector undertakings, four of them central and two Odisha government companies.
He said the NINL, with a capacity of 1.1 million tonne, is the pride of Odisha. He also went on to say that the plant, spread over 2,500 acres of land, would be worth over Rs 2 lakh crore. The steel plant, Jena said, could earn a profit of Rs 1,000 crore.
“The Odisha government led by Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik and the NDA government led by Prime Minister Narendra Modi has entered into a big conspiracy to hand it over to the private industrial houses against the interest of the state and its people,” Jena alleged.
The Union Cabinet chaired by Modi has recently approved disinvestment of stake of six public sector units (PSUs) in NINL in which MMTC holds 49.78 per cent share followed by Odisha Mining Corporation (20.47 per cent), Odisha government undertaking IPICOL (12 per cent), NMDC (10.10 per cent) and MECON and BHEL 0.68 per cent stake each in the company.
The strategic buyer for NINL will be identified through a two-stage auction procedure, official sources said.
Jena said the pig iron produced from the NINL is of the best quality in the country and recently the Managing Director of the company had indicated that the plant will make a profit in 2020.
He said the central cabinet approved the disinvestment in the NINL after the Odisha government, which holds 32.47 per cent stake in the company, gave a green signal for privatisation.
Jena said the Samajik Naya Abhijan, of which he is the chief patron, will not allow any private industrial houses to take over the NINL and appealed to the Congress party to oppose the disinvestment plan as the plant was the brainchild of former Chief Minister JB Patnaik.
He said the NINL is not a sick unit and so there is no justification of disinvestment as approved by the Centre. The former union minister alleged that the plant was deliberately closed and the forest clearance for its mining was kept on hanging for last six years with the sole motive to hand it over to private industrial house.
OMC—the Odisha state government undertaking— which has the second major stake of 20.47 per cent in the NINL after the MMTC, should take over the share of the MMTC and run the plant as the state undertaking has Rs 2,000 crore at its disposal.
The Samajik Naya Abhijan, Jena said, would launch an agitation in the state against the disinvestment in NINL and hold protest demonstrations at Chandikhol soon opposing the move of the state and Centre to privatise the plant.