"Kya hua tera waada...": Jairam Ramesh claims Centre planning to privatize Nagarnar Steel Plant in Bastar

New Delhi [India], August 17 : The Congress on Saturday claimed that the Centre has finalized plans to privatize the Nagarnar Steel Plant in Chhattisgarh's Bastar district.
Congress general secretary-in-charge communications Jairam Ramesh posted on X, a media report that said that the government is likely to invite financial bid for Chhattisgarh's plant.
"Kya hua tera waada, Woh kasam woh irada! It appears that NMDC Steel in Bastar will now definitely be privatized before the end of FY25," Jairam said on X.
"After failing to heed the words of the state's political leadership, and going back on their own promises, the non-biological PM and his Government are now finalizing plans to sell the Nagarnar Steel Plant. Who may well buy it is another story," he added.
He further told ANI that Prime Minister Narendra Modi inaugurated the plant in 2023.
"Understand the chronology, October 3, 2023, a three million tonne steel plant is inaugurated. The Prime Minister inaugurates it in Bastar. The non-biological Prime Minister does it. And while inaugurating it, he says that this steel plant belongs to the people of Bastar and will not be handed over to anyone else. On 19th October 2023, the self-proclaimed Chanakya said in Jagdalpur that the Nagarnar Steel Plant will not be privatised," he said.
The Congress leader also mentioned that in August 2017, Raman Singh ji, the then Chief Minister of Chhattisgarh, wrote to the Prime Minister that it should not be privatised.
"In August 2020 and 2021, Congress Chief Minister Bhupesh Baghel wrote that the Prime Minister should not privatise it. In 2023, the non-biological Prime Minister and the self-proclaimed Chanakya declared that it would not be privatized. Today it is printed in the newspaper that this factory is going to be privatized," Jairam added.
Earlier in 2023, the Congress party called for a Bastar district bandh in Chhattisgarh over the privatisation of the plant.