VISAKHAPATNAM: All the trade unions of the Visakhapatnam Steel Plant (VSP) have appealed to Chief Minister Y.S. Rajasekhara Reddy to convince the Centre on the need to sanction captive mines.

For want of mines to meet its coke and iron ore requirements, the VSP is forced to pay a heavy amount for importing raw material from Australia, besides depending on the National Mineral Development Corporation (NMDC), representatives of the unions - Mantri Rajasekhar of INTUC, Adinarayana of AITUC, K. B. R. Ambedkar of RSEU and others stated in a representation to Dr. Reddy.

They said that the VSP had already submitted applications for grant of captive mines to the Ministry of Mining. Due to lack of iron ore deposits in the State, the VSP is purchasing 6.5 million tonnes a year from the NMDC and 5 million tonnes from Australia.

The unions said that despite a memorandum, the NMDC had failed to supply even a tonne of iron ore from deposit No. 5. Instead, iron ore from the same deposit had been supplied to private industries like Essar Gujarat, Nippon Denro Ispat and Raipur Alloys. They also charged the NMDC with breach of contract/understanding as it is exporting iron ore to some nations.

Almost all the steel plants in the country have captive mines to meet their iron ore and coal requirement whereas, the VSP had no mines of its own. The seven plants coming under Steel Authority of India Limited got abundant reserves of iron ore with as many as 11 captive mines with 2,500 million tonnes, the union leaders pointed out.

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