Pondicherry: The Marumalarchi Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam (MDMK) member P.R. Siva (from Tirunallar constituency in Karaikal) has expressed concern over the decline in the cultivated area in Karaikal following industrialisation there. Participating in an inconclusive debate on demands for grants to some departments including Industries and Agriculture in the Assembly on Thursday, he said that indiscriminate discharge of effluents by industries had also been causing havoc to fertile farmlands. Fast industrialisation had also been displacing farm labourers there.

Subsidised inputs

In the circumstances all the subsidised inputs distributed to the farm sector could not be used and were finding their way into neighbouring Tamil Nadu districts. Mr. Siva sought immediate steps to upgrade the fertility of the soil in Karaikal so that its reputation of `granary of Pondicherry' be restored.

He also said that whenever workers in industrial units attempted to form trade unions, the managements were sacking them. The workers were making exodus in search of jobs to other States. Mr. Siva also said that it was bewildering that entrepreneurs setting up industries from other States in Karaikal were bringing along with them workers from their native States and keeping them as bonded labourers. The necessity at one stage arose for the Karaikal District Collector to come to the rescue of such workers. Mr. Siva sought setting up of non-polluting industries, information technology park and an electronic industrial estate in the Industrial Growth Centre in Polagam near Karaikal. Ohm Sakthi Segar (AIADMK) said that it was indeed a sorry spectacle that industrial entrepreneurs were disappearing from Pondicherry all of a sudden after enjoying all the fiscal incentives and without settling their power arrears running to several crore of rupees to the department of electricity. There should be proper monitoring of such fly-by-night industrial units.

A. Marimuthu (Independent) said that steps should be taken to ensure that there was proper implementation of schemes contemplated for industrialisation and also promotion of animal husbandry and agriculture in the Union Territory. Dr.M.A.S. Subramanian and V.M.C. Sivakumar (both belong to the DMK) N. Anandhu (PMC), M. Kandasamy (Congress) and J. Narayanasamy (Independent) were among those who spoke.

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