The Chhattisgarh assembly unanimously passed a resolution on Monday backing the plans to purchase the National Mineral Development Corporation’s Nagarnar Steel Plant if the Centre disinvests it.
Speaking during the discussion over the resolution, chief minister Bhupesh Baghel urged the Centre against privatising the plant. “The central government has cleared the disinvestment... First, the demerger will take place before September 2021.” Bahel said his predecessor, Raman Singh, in 2017 wrote to the Centre opposing the disinvestment citing Maoist insurgency in the state. “Singh had said that tribes have given land for the public sector unit. Even the legal advisor of the central government had suggested no for the sale.”
Dharamlal Kaushik, the opposition leader in the House, said the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) will also raise the issue with Centre.
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State minister Ravindra Choubey said the land was acquired in Nagarnar for the plant and therefore people of the area had given their consent for it with a hope that it will generate indirect and direct employment. “But after knowing that the plant will be privatised, there is anger among local tribals,” he said.
An official said around 2,000 people are to be employed in the plant.
BJP lawmaker Ajay Chandrakar said the idea of disinvestment was introduced during the Congress’s rule at the Centre. He added during the disinvestment of Bharat Aluminium Company Limited in Korba district, then Chhattisgarh chief minister Ajit Jogi had also proposed to the Centre that the state government will buy it.