The disinvestment move of 100 percent equity share of the NINL has been opposed by the workers unions who have described it as an illegal and arbitrary action which would lead to loss of livelihood of more than 10,000 families.

Several unions have filed a petition in the Orissa High Court in this regard challenging the decision of the promoters of NINL.

In addition to this the Neelachal Executive Association has also filed a writ petition in the HC for disbursement of salary to the employees since February, 2020. The petitioners have mainly accused MMTC as solely responsible for imbroglio.

The petitioners accused the MMTC as a commissioning agent as total commission and interest paid to the MMTC is Rs 1,653 crore which almost compensate the total loss of the NINL. The capital investment was only Rs 747,64 crore but the required fund for plant set-up, required expansion, day to day operation was borrowed from bank, from MMTC and OMC collected as bond. Due to this overburden of liabilities which is presently Rs 5,700 crore, the NINL started incurring huge loss since 2012-13, the unions alleged.

They further stated that a mining lease was granted to NINL in 1999 but thanks to apathy by the MMTC no sincere attempt was made to get mining clearance from 1999 till 2019 for about 20 years. After decision of disinvestment of the NINL, the mines operational activities started very fast which was not possible in the last 20 years. This has been deliberately done to help the private bidders to participate in the disinvestment process, the petitioners told.

In spite of loss of NINL from 2012-13, in 2007, 2014 and subsequently in 2015 and 2016, the Steel Authority of India Ltd, particularly the Union Ministry of Steel showed interest several times for merger of NINL considering the infrastructure, plant facility and its own captive mines but unfortunately the same was not materialized due to non-cooperation of the MMTC, said general secretary, Neelachal Executive Association (NEA), Ajit Kumar Pradhan.