Chennai, May 9: Tamil Nadu is all set to occupy the first place in industrial investments in the country, Chief Minister M Karunanidhi announced in the Assembly on Monday.He said this will be reflected in the report to be released by the Centre for Monitoring Indian Economy (CMIE) on May 15. Tamil Nadu would have had an investment of Rs 1,56,893 crore when compared to Maharashtra's Rs 1,55,362 crore in the next report to be published by CMIE.Chief Minister M Karunanidhi, who is also in charge of industries department, said this in the Assembly on Monday while replying to the debate on demands for grants for his departments. Actually, when CMIE released its earlier report on April 22, it mentioned that investments made in TN was to the tune of Rs 1,41,893 crore which was next only to Maharashtra. The difference in the investments between the two states was only 1.04 per cent.But the CMIE, while compiling the statistics, had left out investments to the tune of Rs 15,000 crore - Rs.5,500 crore for the third mining project of NLC, Rs 7,500 crore for NLC's third thermal power station at Neyveli and Rs 2,000 crore investment in Jayankondam Lignite based Power Project.When the NLC and Jayankondam industry wrote to the CMIE on including those investments, the latter replied on May 5 that the investments would be included when the next report is published on May 15.Karunanidhi said Tamil Nadu occupied the third position among states in industrial development during the DMK regime in 1989-91. It went down to fifth place in the AIADMK regime in 1991-96 and again come up after the DMK regime assumed office in May 1996.He said in the last four years of the DMK rule, there was an increase in the industrial investment to the tune of Rs.2,29,721 crore in the country. Of this, the increase in investments in Tamil Nadu alone amounted to Rs.51,243 crore. Tamil Nadu had a share of 22.31 per cent out of the total increase in the industrial investment in the country in the last four years.The Chief Minister also reeled out statistics to buttress his argument that the State's export was increasing every year. The total exports in the AIADMK regime was Rs 6,803 crore in 1992-93. It went upto Rs.17,802 crore in 1996-97 and to Rs.18,982 crore in 1997-98 in the DMK rule. Similarly, the export of software moved upto Rs.1,800 crore in 1999-2000 from Rs.37 crore in 1995-96, he said.Quoting various economic magazines, the Chief Minister said Tamil Nadu had tremendous growth in exports and economy. He said Tamil Nadu had the largest number of software engineers (22,000) in the country. Moreover, out of the 23,000 engineering graduates passing out every year from the State, 13,000 had passed out with degrees on information technology and related industries.Karunanidhi said there were only 34 software industries in the State prior to May 1996 when the DMK regime assumed office. Now, there are 562 software industries in Tamil Nadu. Coimbatore had just four software firms in 1995-96. Now it is having 58 such firms, he said.GOs: Earlier, intervening in the debate on the demands for grants for industries department, Karunanidhi referred to K S Alagiri's (TMC) statement on two GOs, issued within a gap of 15 days, by the Government on giving concessions to the new industries/those opting expansion programmes. Alagiri said due to the second GO asking the industries to commence production within Jan 22, 2001 for getting concessions, many of the cement industries like Chettinad cement, Madras cement and Electrosteel Limited had been affected.Karunanidhi assured that the second GO would be reconsidered if there was no harm to the Government's interests. The Government would lose Rs 250 crore if the first GO on extending concession till Jan 22, 2002, is implemented. There would be no loss to the local industries by implementing the GO, he said.Intervening on another occasion, Health Minister Arcot N Veerasamy alleged that Ambuja cement had forged the signature of a (Milavittan in Thoothukudi district) panchayat union president while undertaking a construction activity in the SIPCOT complex for a packing unit. Though it obtained permission for constructing 1,500 sq ft by paying Rs 1,100 as fees, the firm started constructing the building with an area of 12,000 sq ft, the Minister alleged. A criminal case had been filed against the firm, he added. However Alagiri said the contractor of the building or the agent of the firm would have forged the signature and not such a big organisation.
