CHENNAI: Leader of Opposition Edappadi K Palaniswami on Thursday slammed the DMK government for the decline of foreign direct investment (FDI) to the state.

Under the AIADMK regime, the state stood at third position in attracting FDI. Now it has slipped to the eight spot as the FDI dropped to 27.7%, he said and attributed it to "incompetent" DMK government governance.

It was the outcome of the prevailing law and order issue and poor governance of the DMK regime. The number of crimes against women and children have increased, while TN has witnessed the second highest number of custodial deaths. Apart from this, the price of essential commodities have also increased manifold under the present government, he said and demanded the government to focus on government welfare activities and take appropriate measures to attract FDI to benefit industrial development.

Earlier in the day, Palaniswami along with senior party functionaries paid floral tribute to the statue of freedom fighter Dheeran Chinnamalai on the premises of Industrial Estate in Guindy.