Palaniswami criticises DMK government for ‘lack of industrial development’

AIADMK general secretary Edappadi K. Palaniswami alleged on Sunday that Tamil Nadu was lagging in industrial development.

In a statement, he criticised the DMK government for the State’s borrowings in the past four years.

Referring to Minister for Information Technology and Digital Services Palanivel Thiaga Rajan’s recent statement that Tamil Nadu’s industrial development was not so aggressive as that of the other Southern States, the former Chief Minister said it summed up the status of industrial development in Tamil Nadu.

Listing the AIADMK government’s contributions to industrial development, including during the COVID-19 pandemic, Mr. Palaniswami said it was because of those initiatives that the State had grown so far.

Citing figures from a report of the Department for Promotion of Industry and Internal Trade (DPIIT) for 2024-25, Mr. Palaniswami said that while Maharashtra and Karnataka took the first two positions in foreign direct investment, Tamil Nadu was placed fifth.

The Leader of the Opposition in the Assembly also pointed to reports that the Madhya Pradesh Chief Minister had not only visited Coimbatore and Tiruppur districts and invited textile industrialists to invest in his State but had also opened office in these districts to help them out.

Though steps were taken during AIADMK rule for facilitating the establishment of semiconductor industries in the State, these units went over to Gujarat and Assam because of the DMK government’s “lackadaisical attitude”.