In Puddukottai farmers demanding river linking. Industries closing down due to power and water shortage#namakkunaame https://t.co/DXZ8XAJGvI

Touring the historically arid district of Pudukkottai during his Namakku Naame campaign in early October 2015, DMK Treasurer M. K. Stalin addressed the twin crises of acute agrarian drought and industrial stagnation. Meeting with delegations of distressed farmers, Stalin strongly endorsed their urgent demand for the speedy execution of the intra-state Cauvery-Vaigai-Gundar link canal project. Cultivators pointed out that while monsoonal floodwaters from the Cauvery drained wastefully into the sea, Pudukkottai's vast network of ancient kanmois (irrigation tanks) remained bone dry, causing widespread crop loss and forced distress migration of rural labourers. Additionally, Stalin visited local industrial clusters where coir processing units, stone quarries, and small manufacturing enterprises had been forced to shut down operations due to chronic power cuts and acute industrial water shortages. Entrepreneurs lamented that despite high commercial taxes, the AIADMK administration offered zero infrastructure support. Stalin criticized the ruling government's callous indifference to Pudukkottai's water scarcity, pledging that an incoming DMK administration would revive the Cauvery-Gundar link project initiated during Dr. Kalaignar's tenure, restore traditional water bodies, and provide subsidized power to rejuvenate rural small-scale industries.