COIMBATORE: Coimbatore being an industrial hub, issues concerning the sector play a key role in every election, be it to the Lok Sabha or Assembly.
That could be the reason why, in six out of the past 16 Lok Sabha elections, Communist parties won the Coimbatore Lok Sabha seat, thrice each by CPI and CPM. But, in 2014 poll, CPM candidate and former MP PR Natarajan, was pushed to the fifth position, after AIADMK, BJP, DMK and Congress.
The 68-year-old social worker Natarajan won the 2009 general election in AIADMK alliance defeating veteran Congress leader R Prabhu by a margin of 38,664 votes. At that time, he polled 2,93 lakh votes. But, when CPI and CPM contested alone in the 2014 general election, Natarajan managed to secure just 34,197 votes (2.91 per cent of the total votes polled), much less than the 10.45 per cent of votes he polled in 1996. But, this time he is contesting in the alliance led by DMK, which got 2.17 lakh votes in 2014.
At the same time, BJP, which won twice in the aftermath of the 1998 serial bomb blast incident, sees Coimbatore as one of their potential constituencies where they could perform better. In fact, during 1999 general elections even veteran CPI leader R Nallakannu could not withstand the BJP wave and lost to CP Radhakrishnan, a businessman, by a margin of 54,000 votes. Radhakrishnan, who is presently chairman of Coir Board, lost only by a margin of 42,016 votes in 2014. He is now contesting with the support of AIADMK which won the seat last time.
While Sulur and Palladam Assembly segments in Coimbatore Lok Sabha constituency had large number of powerlooms, other four assembly segments (Coimbatore North and South, Singanallur and Kavundampalayam) consist of various types of micro, small and medium industries ranging from pumps, wet grinder, foundry, automobile spare parts and machinery. These industries have a long list of woes.
For P Karthikeyan, who runs a micro industry manufacturing pump spare parts at TVS Nagar on Thadagam Road, it is a continuous struggle to run the industry.
Five years after starting the industry, in 2007, we faced power cut issue. At that time we had to buy a genset, which we were forced to sell at a meagre price after the power crisis was resolved. When demonetisation was announced in November 2016, it had a big impact on our business. In a place, where 10-12 persons used to work, we have only two to three people working and many of them resigned, as we were not able to pay them salary due to restrictions on withdrawal of cash, he recalled.
He said “GST affected our business in a big way. Micro industries like us will get payment from big companies who give us job orders, only 90 days after bill generation. But, we have to pay GST before 20th of next month. In case, we fail to pay the GST in time, we have to pay a penalty of `200 per day, which has now been reduced to `50 per day,” he said.
Stating that they could not withstand 18 per cent GST on job order, his demand is that it should be reduced to five per cent. “Both for manufacturing as well as job work industries, the main problem is GST. Despite repeated representation by various industrial bodies, the government has not at all considered our concern,” said S Surulivel, president of Coimbatore SIDCO Industrial Estate Manufacturers Welfare Association (COSIEMA).
He hoped that at least this time Coimbatore elects a representative to Lok Sabha, who would represent the industries concern to the Central government.
For 50-year-old C Palanisami, who runs a job work power loom, around 35 kms away from Thadagam Road, it is a different problem altogether.
“Days of employing a worker and running the job work power looms are gone. With the income we get, we have to pay one-third each for electricity, wage and after deducting spare parts cost, we get less than one-third. Only if it is run with the help of family members, they can run their family”, he added. He splits work among the family members, with sons running the powerloom, wife and daughter-in-laws extending helping hand in packaging.
There are days when mill worker job is being looked more precious than a Collector’s job, he recalled. His expectation from government is that cotton price should be controlled and encouragement for export should be given by providing subsidy which would help them produce at less cost.
There are around 2.5 lakh powerlooms located in and around Somanur, Palladam areas.
The overall expectation from the industry’s side is that the next government at the Centre should have a sympathetic view on them and redress their problems.