Tirupur candidates face disgruntled textile units owners, farmers

COIMBATORE: Tirupur, the knitwear hub of India, continues to be a driving force behind the growth of the nation’s economy. Despite its commendable contribution, the government’s apathy in addressing issues confronted by the textile units has left them in dire straits. This apparent sense of disgruntlement among the knitwear sector has turned Tirupur Lok Sabha constituency into a difficult terrain for any the political party in the fray.

Sitting MP and CPI candidate K Subbarayan has been pitted against AIADMK’s P Arunachalam and BJP’s AP Muruganandam. Tirupur Lok Sabha encompasses the assembly constituencies of Tirupur North and Tirupur South in Tirupur district, while Gobichettipalayam, Bhavani, Anthiyur and Perundurai are from the neighbouring Erode district.

Even though CPI’s Subbarayan won the 2019 general elections by securing 5,08,725 votes as against AIADMK’s MSM Anandan’s 4, 15,357, this constituency is considered to be a bastion of AIADMK. Barring the last polls, the AIADMK took home successive victories in both 2009 and 2014 ever since it was declared a separate constituency. Four of the Assembly constituencies, Perundurai, Bhavani, Gobichettipalayam and Tirupur North are in the kitty of AIADMK, while Anthiyur and Tirupur South are with the DMK.

During delimitation in 2008, from Gobichettipalayam Lok Sabha constituency it was carved out to become Tirupur. This constituency has an interesting mix of population reliable on farming and the industrial sector.

In a pride, the textile sector in Tirupur exports Rs 35,000 crore worth of knitwear goods annually and does domestic business for Rs 30,000 crore. “But almost 50 per cent of the MSMEs have been hit drastically by GST, demonetization, power tariff hike and unsteady price of cotton. We have decided to elect a candidate from this constituency, who doesn’t hesitate to raise our issues in Parliament and serve as a link between the central government and our industrial sector. Even though the textile sector generates the highest rate of employment, next only to farming, it’s our concern that there is not even a separate minister for this sector,” said MP Muthurathinam, president of Tiruppur Exporters and Manufacturers Association.

Industrialists also expressed a sense of disappointment with the current MP Subbarayan for failing to raise some of the perennial issues haunting the textile sector. Any government favours only the corporate’s by sidelining the welfare of MSME-based textile sector which include mills, knitting, compacting and production units.

More than seven lakh workers are dependent directly and another three lakh workers indirectly in the textile sector for their livelihood. Because of the ongoing downward trend, the crisis hit textile units are currently functional only to a maximum of three or four days a week. And, the situation is going further worse, lamented industrialists.

One of the pertinent demands of the industrialists with candidates of major political parties in the fray is to hold a meeting with them once in three months to address their issues, whoever wins among them. So far, the MPs remain disconnected with the industrial sector after winning the polls.

In the predominantly, agrarian belt of Anthiyur, Bhavani and Perundurai, issues like excess discharge of industrial effluents into water bodies continue to be a worry for the farmers.

“Discharge of effluents from industries and particularly from SIPCOT is a major issue in Perundurai area. Because of such indiscriminate discharge of effluents, the ground water table has been spoiled. It also pollutes water bodies as well as river Noyyal,” said Kannaiyan Subramaniam, president of Thalavady Farmers Association. The prolonged delay in implementation of Avinashi-Athikadavu scheme is also seen as a major setback for the candidate from the ruling DMK.