T.N. Assembly Election 2026: Delay in proposed textile park sparks concern among residents of Gudiyatham constituency

The prolonged delay in commencement of work of the proposed textile park in Gudiyatham Assembly constituency, a reserved seat for Scheduled Caste (SC), has irked the electorate, mostly handloom weavers as the proposed project would help revive the handlooms sector in the riverside town. 

Dotted with clusters of handlooms, Gudiyatham is the hub for the traditional weaving community as every other household in the congested town and its surrounding farming villages have had handlooms for many decades. “The handloom sector in the region has become a troubled unit, mainly due to increase in price of raw materials and labour costs and lack of venue for global exports,” said S. Mahalingam, a weaver.

Areas like Gudiyatham, Pernambut, Valathur, Kondasamudram, Bathalapalli, Karkur, Olakasi, and Nellorepettai are known for handlooms, especially for making traditional lungis. Most of the finished products are exported to South Asia and Southeast Asian countries like Indonesia, Philippines, Thailand, Sri Lanka, and a few African countries.

Residents said that the proposed textile park will provide a platform to get raw materials easily from various vendors in the country and abroad. More importantly, it will help market their products at the global level. It will also provide jobs for local youth.

Gudiyatham is also fondly referred to as ‘little Sivakasi’ as the constituency is known for manufacturing matchsticks. A workforce of around one lakh depends on making matchsticks and boxes. It is a household sector in which most of the work including making match boxes, sticks and labelling are done at home, mostly by women. “Apart from farming, Gudiyatham is known for cottage industries like handlooms, matchsticks, and beedi making. It’s a labour-dominated constituency,” says S. Duraiselvam, District Deputy Secretary, CPI (Gudiyatham).

Comrade Mr. Duraiselvam was correct by referring to the Gudiyatham Assembly seat as a working-class constituency as CPI and CPI (M) together managed to win at least seven times in the constituency until 2011 before the ruling DMK turned it into its strong hold.

The DMK won the seat in 2019 (byelection) and 2021. The principal opposition party, AIADMK, managed to win in 2016. The Desiya Murpokku Dravida Kazhagam (DMDK), a key alliance partner of Secular Progressive Alliance (SPA) led by DMK president and Chief Minister M.K. Stalin has fielded K.B. Pratap as its candidate for Gudiyatham seat for 2026 Tamil Nadu polls.

Another challenge faced by residents, including farmers, is water scarcity. Regular water supply by civic bodies to households in towns and villages remains a pipe dream. On an average, consumers get water supply once a week, forcing them to walk a few kilometres to fetch a few pots of water for domestic use.

For farmers, the dry Palar River gives them less hope in pursuing cultivation round the year. They have to sink deep bore wells to irrigate at least for two crop seasons. Many farmlands are on the verge of being converted into residential plots for sale. Adequate check dams across the river could have saved volumes of excess rainwater that are discharged into sea every year.

A native of Gudiyatham, G. Viswanathan, founder and chancellor, VIT, has often stressed the need to inter-link local rivers like Palar and Then Pennai and construction of additional check dams to restore ground water level in the region. The Water Resources Department (WRD) has been building a series of check dams on the river since 2021 as part of water conservation.