'Centre's proposal to shift raw material division of SAIL out of Bengal a conspiracy'

KOLKATA: The Central government's proposal to shift the Raw Material Division (RMD) of Steel Authority of India (SAIL) outside Bengal is a deep rooted conspiracy against the state following BJP's poll debacle, Ritabrata Bandyopadhyay, INTTUC, state president said on Monday.

Addressing a press conference at Trinamool Bhavan on Monday afternoon Bandyopadhyay said there was a proposal to shift the RMD to Bokaro and Rourkela and add to the captive mines. Bandyopadhyay said the workers of SAIL had already given a letter to Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee seeking her intervention in the matter. INTTUC has drawn the attention of party's all-India general secretary Abhishek Banerjee into the matter. INTTUC will start movement against the draconian step shortly, he maintained.

He said if the RMD was shifted to other states, then the steel plants like DSP, ISCO and Alloy Steel would face problems. Small steel plants in West Burdwan would be forced to shut down. He alleged that this was the first step to wind out these steel plants like the one at Vizag where the Centre had decided to wind it up on the ground that it did not have raw material.

The state INTTUC president said there would be huge retrenchment of workers and officials. He pointed out that in 2020- 21, SAIL had made a profit of Rs 3470 crore and the RMD had played an important role in making the profit.

Bandyopadhyay alleged that unable to digest the defeat in the Assembly election BJP had conspired to put the state in trouble. INTTUC members had raised their voice in the RMD and a bigger movement would be launched soon, he maintained.

Meanwhile, Sukhendu Sekhar Roy, Trinamool Congress MP urged the Centre either to control the price of petrol and diesel or give subsidies as the spiraling prices of the fuel had affected people. Trinamool Congress will launch a movement demanding roll back of the prices of petroleum products. In seven states, the price of petrol had become more than Rs 100 per litre and that of diesel was going to reach three digits soon, he remarked. TMC will start a movement on the issue soon, he said.