Amma defends her own record on growth, reels out statistics

COIMBATORE: Chief minister J Jayalalithaa sought to defend her record on development and counter charges of growth paralysis at length for the first time in the campaign on Sunday. Speaking at a rally in Coimbatore, the hub of small and medium scale enterprises in the state, she claimed Tamil Nadu was among the top three preferred destina tions for investments in the country.

If the DMK's charge of growth slowing in TN under Amma' is finding traction ` among voters in urban pockets, the AIADMK chief sought to offset it by reeling out statistics before a crowd of nearly a lakh at the Codissia grounds near the airport.

Jayalalithaa said the state had the second highest GDP after Maharashtra. “Maharashtra is double the size of Tamil Nadu. TN managing to come next to it is a huge achievement,“ she said, while urging voters to endorse her party's candidates across the region in Coimbatore, Nilgiris, Tiruppur as well as Palakkad.

In a sharp attack on DMK leaders who accused her regime of crippling industry , she said perhaps they were refer ring to their family businesses. “Is Karunanidhi saying there is no industrial growth because revenue from their cable TV business has been hit after my government started offering cable TV service at low cost? Is it because granite loot was stopped by my government? Or is it because no new liquor licences are being given?'' she asked.

“In the last five years of my rule, Tamil Nadu has received FDI which is double the investment received in preceding 11 years put together,“ she claimed. Jayalalithaa said 5.32 lakh small, micro and medium scale industries were started in the last five years in TN attracting an investment of `88,354 crores.

In comparison, only 1.78 lakh small, micro and medium industries were established during the previous DMK regime, attracting an investment of just `15,906 crore. TN now tops the country in terms of number of industries and number of industrial workers, she said. It is also numero uno in attracting foreign direct investment and the number of new small, micro and medium scale units being set up.

Jayalalithaa said 14 industrial estates have been set up in the last five years and the state government has spent `417 as subsidies for small, micro and medium units. If these were the industries set up in the last five years, the Tamil Nadu Pollution Control Board has also granted approval for setting up 4,059 industries during the same period at an estimated cost of `1.58 lakh crore.

Among companies that signed MoUs worth `2.42 lakh crores during the global investors meet organized by the AIADMK leadership, 45 have invested `22,595 crore generating numerous jobs, she said. “Other companies that had signed are in the process of acquiring land and mobilizing funds.“