Chief Minister Edappadi K. Palaniswami on Thursday reiterated his government’s commitment towards implementing the Cauvery-Gundar river-link project, and said that it would fulfill the dreams of the farming community.
Unveiling a statue of ‘a jallikattu bull with tamer’ in the Viralimalai Assembly constituency, represented by Health Minister C. Vijayabaskar, Mr. Palaniswami said steps would be taken to acquire the required land expeditiously for the canal to be dug up from Mayanur, Karur district.
The scheme envisages a new link canal for 250 km to carry surplus waters of the Cauvery from the Mayanur barrage in Karur district to Agniyaru, South Vellar, Manimutharu, the Vaigai and Gundar under the intra-State river-linking programme. The mega project will fulfill the dreams of the people of agrarian Pudukottai and turn the district into a fertile region, he said, adding that he would soon visit the district to lay the foundation for the project.
Terming Pudukottai “a land of valour”, Mr. Palaniswami said that as many as 110 jallikattu events, the highest in the State, were organised in the district last year. He complimented Mr. Vijayabaskar, jallikattu organisers and officials for installing the statue at Viralimalai.
Earlier, speaking after inspecting a manufacturing unit of the ITC in Viralimalai taluk, Mr. Palaniswami said that Tamil Nadu stood first, at the all-India level, in attracting new investments in 2020. The State was able to attract investments to the tune of ₹40,718 crore, notwithstanding the pandemic, by signing 55 MoUs that would provide employment opportunities to 74,712 persons, he said.
Tamil Nadu was at the forefront of industrialisation, and it had successfully organised two global investors’ meets and had attracted substantial investments, the Chief Minister said.
During the 2015 global investors’ meet, the ITC signed an MoU with the State to invest over ₹1,077 crore for setting up its plant for manufacturing food products at Viralimalai. In the first phase, the company invested ₹820 crore, providing employment to 2,200 persons.
Nearly 85% of the employment at the ITC unit was provided to rural women residing in the surrounding areas.
The ITC invested another ₹351 crore, in the second phase, for its expansion and the creation of other facilities. He complimented the ITC for setting up its plant here and for executing community development projects in the area. He invited the company to make more investments in the State.
Mr. Palaniswami also inaugurated Ashirwad’s wheat flour making unit, set up at a cost of ₹100 crore, at the plant. Ministers C. Vijayabaskar, M.C. Sampath and S. Kamaraj, Pudukottai Collector P. Uma Maheswari and others participated.