Rajya Sabha BJD member Dr Amar Pattnaik has urged Prime Minister Narendra Modi for merger of the Neelachal Ispat Nigam Ltd (NINL) with SAIL/RINL/NMDC.

After a decision of strategic disinvestment of 100% shares in NINL taken by the Central Government, major promoter MMTC and minor promoters have stopped further funding for running of the plant leading to suspension of production of all units from March during the Covid-19 period. For no fault of the employees, they are being deprived of  getting their salaries/remunerations for past five months. This has also led to restlessness among employees and strikes on several occasions.

The disinvestment decision by  the Government of India will be quite unfortunate and a sad decision looking into the assets of the plant, its past working, availability of land, raw material security, infrastructure facility and the opportunities for future expansion etc. Now that the Government of India has envisioned for the development of eastern India under look east policy and mission PURVODAYA, it is pertinent that the Central Government should reconsider its decision of disinvestment and instead keep all the assets of NINL under a Central PSU.

Since all the present shareholders are from State and Cental PSUs, the NINL merger with steel PSUs should not create any problem. Hence an alternate model should be worked out so as to merge the unit with a steel PSU, said Neelachal Executives’ Association general secretary Ajit Kumar Pradhan.