Tamil industrialists not to invest in Karnataka: Jayalalithaa

Tamil Nadu Chief Minister J Jayalalitha on Tuesday said no industrialist from Tamil Nadu has decided to invest in Karnataka.

Addressing an election rally at Pollachi, she said when Karnataka Chief Minister (Siddaramaiah) invited industrialists to start their units in Chamarajanagar, industrialists in Coimbatore had attended that meeting. “That’s it. Nothing was decided as to who would set up a factory and the extent of land to be allotted.”

Jayalalitha said if a government offered an industrial cluster, it should provide basic infrastructure like road, power connection and water. But nothing has been provided there (Chamarajanagar), she said wondering how businessmen from Tamil Nadu would evince interest to invest when even Karnataka industrialists were hesitant to start business there.

She also claimed that industries’ associations had come out in the open to declare that they were happy doing business in Tamil Nadu.

Siddaramaiah visited the State on January 20 to attend the ‘Coimbatore Road Show 2014’, organised by the Federation of Karnataka Chambers of Commerce and Industry, to persuade Tamil Nadu industrialists to invest in Chamarajanagar and Mysore districts in Karnataka.

Jayalalitha said it was Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam which was spreading false information that industrialists from Tamil Nadu were migrating to Karnataka.