By IANS
Chennai : Underling the strained ties between the allies, the PMK Saturday criticised Tamil Nadu’s ruling DMK for its “inequitable” industrial policy and suggested an alternative roadmap for the state’s development.
The M. Karunanidhi government’s industrial policy is “inequitable and jobloss-driven”, PMK chief S. Ramadoss told the media here.
“The rich get richer, poor get poorer and there is nothing for the development of the common man,” he said for the current development model.
Releasing ‘Industrial development in Tamil Nadu: An alternative model’, Ramadoss said the DMK government’s present industrial policy was “driven more by foreign direct investment (FDI) from MNCs and does not provide equal opportunities to the people of this state”.
The present policy only looks at “job opportunities for only six percent of the state’s population who had the privilege of receiving higher education.”
“More specifically, it is confined to around 80,000 engineering graduates and 60,000 diploma holders. This is only a fraction of the workforce in the state.
“Industrial development should not provide job opportunities for the educated alone. It should pave the way for the employment of semi-skilled and low-skilled workforce too.
“Among the total work force of three crore (30 million), only 26 lakh (2.6 million) people are working in the organised sector,” Ramadoss said in his report.
Investors were focusing only on Chennai, Thiruvallur and Kancheepuram districts, he said. “Only 50 persons are working in a company started with an investment of Rs.500 crore (Rs.5 billion) – that too only IT graduates.”
Ramadoss suggested focusing on ‘special agro-economic zones’ (SAEZs), artisan cluster units and rural IT initiatives in his alternative model for industrial development in the state.
“All primary, secondary and tertiary sectors in the rural economy should be combined with agro activity-centred growth strategy.”
He said his alternative was an “inclusive and equitable” model that would “make the common man a partner and direct beneficiary of the development process”.
Saying that his concern over public issues was being misconstrued as anti-development, Ramadoss said he had sent copies of the alternative model to Chief Minister and DMK head Karunanidhi with whom he has been waging an “issue-based” battle ever since May 2006.
Ramadoss added he would present a copy of his report to Prime Minister Manmohan Singh in New Delhi next week.
He asked the state government to deal firmly with the cement factory owners instead of giving sops to them, as a shortfall of the commodity had led to a hike in the prices.
The central government earlier this week permitted the state government to import cement to meet the demand. But Ramadoss said any attempt to import cement “was an exercise in futility”.