No new projects have come in 10 months of DMK rule, says ex-min MC Sampath

At the time when the visit of Chief Minister MK Stalin has come under criticism from opposition parties, the former industries minister MC Sampath, in an exclusive interview to DT Next, said that in the last 10 months of DMK rule, no new project has reached Tamil Nadu and all those inaugurated were signed during the previous AIADMK rule.

As a former minister for industries how do you see the recent visit of Stalin to Dubai? Will the visit result in new investments?

• Visiting foreign countries and signing MOUs are a continuous process that every government undertakes but we must see the results. All the new projects that have reached the state in the last 10 months of DMK rule such as furniture park, DLF Downtown project, expansion of Saint Gobain were all signed during the previous AIADMK rule. We (AIADMK) searched whether any new project has reached the state in the last 10 months but nothing has come so far.

What is the difference between the visits of Edappadi K Palaniswami and Stalin to foreign countries?

• The theme of the visit of EPS was ‘Yaadhum Oore’ meaning to unite Tamils across the globe and to invite them back to India to invest. For this purpose we had visited the USA, United Kingdom and Dubai and signed more than 40 MOUs to bring investments worth more than Rs 8,800 crore but Stalin’s visit had no such intentions. Even, we met LuLu Group authorities in the UAE and they demanded 20 acres in the prime area of Chennai to bring investments worth Rs 5,000 crore but land could not be arranged immediately and now Stalin has met them once again.

Stalin said that the MOUs signed by the previous AIADMK regime are mere paper boats and no investments have reached the state. How do you see this?

• Stalin has no idea about the volume of investments that reached Tamil Nadu as a result of MOUs signed by our government. For instance, we signed MOUs worth Rs 3,750 crore in Dubai alone and investments worth Rs 1,100 crore have already reached the state. Our MOUs were not paper boats but boats bringing in investments.

How do you see the ambitious announcement of the state government in setting a target of $1 billion economy by 2030?

• Though the state government has announced the target of 1 Billion Dollar economy there are no plans rolled out to meet the target. There was no expert committee appointed to oversee the progress of their target. There are many committees appointed but we are not sure whether their progress is monitored.

Q: What do you think about the criticism of Edappadi K Palaniswami that the visit of Stalin was merely a family tour and not a tour for investments?

• There is nothing wrong in Stalin taking his wife to Dubai but it is not appropriate to take his entire family along with him which raises doubts on the agenda behind the visit. When Edappadi K Palaniswami visited the USA, UK and Dubai a large number of people came to cheer us without any publicity arrangement but now the visit of Stalin was completely a publicity exercise largely managed by his family members.