CITU condemns Andhra Pradesh government’s decision to establish ESI medical college in Amaravati instead of Visakhapatnam

Centre of Indian Trade Unions (CITU) State general secretary Ch. Narasinga Rao has strongly condemned the decision of the State government to establish the ESI medical college at Amaravati, instead of Visakhapatnam, which has the maximum number of public and private sector industries.

In a statement, Mr. Narasinga Rao called upon the TDP-led alliance government to give up its attitude that Amaravati is synonymous with Andhra Pradesh. As a 500-bed ESI Hospital has already been announced by the Centre at Sheelanagar in Visakhapatnam city, the attached ESI medical should be built in Visakhapatnam. Further, there were 14 lakh ESI subscribers in North Andhra, and the ESI hospital and medical colleges would cater to their needs, he said.

Mr. Narasinga Rao said that the TDP-led government has failed to keep its election promise of either merging Visakhapatnam Steel Plant (VSP) with Steel Authority of India Limited (SAIL) or provide captive mines to the plant. He alleged that it was now trying to push VSP into losses and hand it over to private players. He ridiculed the TDP-led government for announcing the Arcelor Mittal steel plant at Nakkapalli, instead of trying to save VSP.

Mr. Narasinga Rao sought to know as to what was the value of the agreements made with private investors during the TDP rule between 2014-19. He also alleged that the State government has prepared a plan to replace 12,700 RTC buses in the State with electric buses. The plan was to procure each bus at a cost of ₹2 crore and hand them over to private operators. He also alleged that the government was planning to sell the lands, owned by APSRTC all over the State, to private players.

He called upon all workers to join the protests to be held across the State on December 25 as part of the nation-wide protest call given by Central trade unions against the decision of the Centre to privatise the Chandigarh Electricity Board. He recalled that the YSRCP government was defeated as it had implemented the BJP-led NDA policies on privatisation. He condemned the TDP-led alliance government for continuing the same policies.