MEL to merge with SAIL

New Delhi, May 18 (UNI) Steel Minister Ram Vilas Paswan today assured a delegation of the Maharashtra Electro-Steel Limited that his Ministry, in principle, has taken a decision to merger it with Steel Authority of India Limited (SAIL).

A high-powered delegation of MEL, comprising representatives from the workers union and from the management, called on the Minister at his office here and apprised him of the latest development vis-a-vis the future market scenario of the ferro alloys industry.

The representatives informed the Minister that ferro alloys was an integral part in the making of steel, so its merger with SAIL will enable the Steel Authority to reduce its cost of production while increasing its steel production.

Mr Paswan, after carefully listening to their representations and presentations, asked SAIL chairman V S Jain whether he had any reservation on the proposal. Mr Jain said he fully supported the move.

However, Mr Jain said the only thing was that the issue will now have to be cleared through the SAIL board for which he would convene a board meeting very soon.

At this, the steel Minister assured the workers and the management that his Ministry in principle had agreed to merge MEL with SAIl but a formal announcement will take some time as some more legal formalities will have to be cleared.

Mr Paswan also advised the management of MEL to get the proposal passed through a special resolution from the MEL board to speed up the process.

Later speaking to newsmen, Mr Paswan said his Ministry wanted to merge the Maharashtra-based Manganese Ore (India) Limited and Andhra based Rashtriya Ispat Nigam Limited (RINL) with SAIL.

He, however, said the move is being faced with strong opposition from both the organisations and in the case of RINL, the State Government is also opposed to it.

Mr Paswan said in the era of globalisation it is imperative that one should not only have large production base but also enjoy a competitive cost of production.

He informed that in the case of RINL's merger with SAIL, even Prime Minister Manmohan Singh has spoken to the Chief Minister to resolve the tangle.

UNI BKS MSJ HT1525