Tensions between the police and the protesters escalated in some areas of Andhra Pradesh on Wednesday, May 3, as the Visakha Ukku Parirakshana Porata Committee (VUPPC) and labour unions called for a statewide rasta roko (road block) under the Centre of Indian Trade Unions (CITU) to oppose the privatisation of the Visakhapatnam Steel Plant. The protests were intensified ahead of Chief Minister YS Jagan Mohan Reddy's arrival in Visakhapatnam on Wednesday for laying the foundation stones for Bhogapuram airport in Vizianagaram district and Adani Data Centre at Rushikonda in Visakhapatnam.
The VUPPC, a committee of steel plant workers in Visakhapatnam, has been staging protests for the past 811 days, calling on the Union government to abandon the idea of privatising the steel plant. The workers staged a sit-in protest while raising slogans such as "Visakha Ukku Andhrula hakku'' (Visakha steel is Andhra's right) on Wednesday at Kurmannapalem junction, where the plant is located. They were detained by the police after the sit-in caused traffic congestion.
VUPCC members told the media that Wednesday’s protests included statewide demonstrations from Srikakulam to Anantapur. “We demand that Chief Minister YS Jagan Mohan Reddy and Opposition leader Chandrababu Naidu meet with the Prime Minister to put pressure on the Union government to revoke its decision. Since the past two and a half years, we have been protesting, and we will continue to do so until the decision is revoked,” a VUPPC member told the media.
At Maddilapalem in the heart of Visakhapatnam city, CITU members who staged a rasta roko were detained.
In Vijayawada, left parties including CPI, CPI(M), and CPI(I) called for protest and termed the steel plant’s privatisation a betrayal. They demanded that all parties in the state should work with sincerity to preserve the steel plant as it was established as a result of several sacrifices of the people. The president of the Forum for Achieving Special Category Status, Chalasani Srinivas, who was detained by the Vijayawada police, told the media, "The steel plant is an asset to the nation. The Union government is deceiving people by attempting to sell it to business tycoons. The state government is sleeping rather than working to protect it.”
Following the protests in Vijayawada, senior leader and former minister Vadde Sobhanadreeswara Rao and left party leaders V Srinivas Rao, CH Baburao, and Y Keshavrao were arrested and taken to Bhavanipuram police station. Condemning their arrests, the leaders reportedly refused to stop the agitation and staged a sit-in protest in the police station.
The Union government announced its decision to privatise the steel plant in January 2021 and called for Expressions of Interest (EoI) through Rashtriya Ispat Nigam Ltd (RINL), the corporate entity of the steel plant on March 27. By April 20, the deadline for submitting EoIs, 29 companies, including seven international players, had submitted bids for supply of raw materials and providing working capital to the steel plant.