CM Yediyurappa asks Centre to drop Visvesvaraya Iron and Steel Ltd disinvestment plan
New Delhi, Jan 30: Karnataka Chief Minister B S Yediyurappa on Thursday called on Union Steel Minister Dharmendra Pradhan and requested him to drop the disinvestment proposal of Visvesvaraya Iron and Steel Ltd (VISL), which has attracted no bidders till now.
Bhadravathi-based VISL, which was set up in 1918, was merged into SAIL in 1998.
In the meeting, the chief minister informed that "there is still resistance for disinvestment of VISL" and requested the Union Minister to take necessary action to drop the disinvestment proposal of the steel plant.
He highlighted that VISL is a very good brand in the alloy steel industry. People of Bhadravathi and Shivamoga are attached to the plant, he said while urging the union minister to revive the unit by infusing required capital.
The chief minister further informed that VISL is presently a "loss-making" unit because no capital investment either by the central government or SAIL.
SAIL has infused only Rs 157 crore in VISL so far for repair and renewal of the plant, he said.
SAIL, which has initiated disinvestment of VISL as per the recommendation of the government think-tank Niti Aayog, has not received any bids from private firms till now, he added in a representation made to the Steel Minister.
The steel PSU had called expression of interest from private firms in July 2019.
VISL is the only steel producer of more than 730 special grade steel in the country and has potential to contribute to achieving the aim of National Steel Policy 2017.
The company has captive mines of nearly 497 acres, abundant water resources from Bhadra river, power generating plant, adequate land and labour.
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Two injuries, one DNF, a DQ as India end messy World Relays campaign
Gaborone (Botswana) (PTI): Amoj Jacob and Ragul Kumar got injured during the men's 4x400m and 4x100 races respectively as India ended their World Athletics Relays campaign in disappointment on the second day of competitions here on Sunday.
The Indian camp had high hopes of making the 2027 World Championships in the men's 4x400m relay but the team did not finish (DNF) the race as Jacob suffered cramps and pulled out of the race after taking the baton from the first leg runner Dharamveer Choudhary. Rajesh Ramesh and Vishal TK were to run in the third and fourth legs.
Those teams which could not qualify for the 2027 Beijing World Championships by reaching the final round of each of the six relay events on Saturday were given another chance in the second qualification round on Sunday.
The top two teams in each of the two heats (in all six relay events) booked the Beijing ticket on Sunday.
India will now have to try and qualify for the World Championships through the Top Lists of the World Athletics, which is a long and tedious process.
In the men's 4x100m race, third leg runner Ragul Kumar fell down the track after failing to hand over the baton inside the exchange zone to fourth leg runner Gurindervir Singh, which clearly showed the lack of coordination among the runners.
Harsh Santosh Raut and Animesh Kujur ran the first two legs.
The Indian quartet was disqualified and Kumar was seen being taken away from the Field of Play with the help of the volunteers.
It was a comedy of errors in the case of the women's 4x100m race, which saw the baton being dropped during an exchange between first leg runner Tamanna and second runner Nithya Gandhe, though the Indians finished the race in 53.09 seconds.
Gandhe started running quite a distance, but after realising that the baton was not in her hand, she turned and ran back to pick it up.
The only silver-lining for the Indian contingent was the national record time in the mixed 4x100m relay race, though the quartet of Ragul Kumar, Nithya Gandhe, Animesh Kujur and Sneha SS finished sixth in heat number two with a time of 41.35 seconds, bettering the previous national mark of 42.30 seconds set in March in Chandigarh.
The mixed 4x400m relay quartet of Theerthesh P Shetty, Kumari Saloni, Nihal William and Rashdeep Kaur ended at fifth in heat number one with a time of 3 minutes and 19.40 seconds.
On Saturday, all the five Indian relay teams had failed to make it to the respective final rounds and thus missed out on the 2027 World Championships berths.
