Lok Sabha elections: Who said BJP’s economic policies affected Coimbatore district, asks candidate

COIMBATORE: BJP candidate in Coimbatore Lok Sabha constituency C P Radhakrishnan on Monday countered the allegations against the economic policies of the BJP government at the Centre.
Radhakrishnan told reporters that loss of jobs and industrial crisis were a false propaganda spread by opposition parties. He said contrary to the opposition parties’ allegations, there was growth in the district.

“The Communist parties keep stating that they will remove GST and that there is no growth,” he said. “How will two CODISSIA parks come up, one on 360 acres and another on 350 acres? If the BJP government was against small and tiny industries, why would they reduce GST on wet grinders from 26% to 18%?” he said.

“It is not the Congress and the DMK who reduced GST. It was minister S P Velumani and me who explained the situation to the GST council and got it reduced,” he added.

Countering the opposition claims that almost 40,000 small and tiny industries had shut shops across the state in the last few years, Radhakrishnan said more than 56,680 people have availed loans worth Rs 865 crore under Mudra scheme which offers loans up to Rs 1 lakh for poor people. So many pavement dwellers have benefited from this. “We are one of the first districts to get a defence park and a research and development sector. This will give business to many small industries and employ such youth,” he said.

He said if industries had shut down, people should analyse the reason behind it. “Before the Modi government came, people had 10 to 14 hours of power cut forcing them to run industries on diesel, which they could not afford,” said Radhakrishnan.

“Many people also shut down industries because their children are not interested in running it,” he added.