TN has best and conducive investment climate: Jaya

Hitting back at opposition over the industrial climate in Tamil Nadu, Chief Minister and AIADMK supremo Jayalalithaa today accused them of indulging in a "false propaganda" that industries in the state were shifting to Karnataka due to "negligence" by her government.
In reality, industries in the state, particularly in this region, had denied any such plan to shift to Chamarajnagar in Karnataka, she said addressing an election rally here, a major industrial-textile hub of the state, reeling out statistics.
Moreover, there was no proper facility in Chamarajnagar, like power, water and infrastructure and the apex body of spinning mills, SIMA, has also made it clear no investment from this region will go to neighbouring state, she claimed.

Besides, the Planning Commission has put Tamil Nadu at the number one slot for conducive investment climate, placing Karnataka at the second spot, she said.
Stating that number of industries had increased in the last 34 months, she said 33 companies, including MNCs had signed MOUs to invest Rs 31,076 crore, out of which Rs 10,660 crore had already been received, creating 10,000 new direct jobs and thousands of indirect employment.
While the number of registered industries had gone up from 26,122 in 2008-09 to over 40,352, the number of MSMEs had increased from 1.78 lakh to 2.55 lakh in Tamil Nadu in the last 34 months, she said.

The workforce has also gone up from about 80 lakh in March 2011 to 1.6 crore till December 2013, indicating that the government had succeeded in creating jobs, she contended.
On the power front, a key plank of DMK, Jayalalithaa said the government had taken steps to make Tamil Nadu a power-cut free state and DMK wanted to "exploit" the situation, when there were some snags in some power plants resulting in power cut a week ago.
Stating that some opposition parties were spreading false propaganda to tarnish the image of the government, she said they would never succeed in their attempts.