In kovai MSME owners complain of constant power cuts, cash constraints and feel disregarded in tendering process http://t.co/PJpVw4anNO

During his extensive campaign through the industrial city of Coimbatore in October 2015, DMK Treasurer M. K. Stalin convened a dedicated consultative session with Micro, Small, and Medium Enterprise (MSME) owners, foundry operators, and engineering component manufacturers. The entrepreneurs voiced deep distress over the crippling operational challenges that had eroded Coimbatore's position as the 'Manchester of South India.' Industrialists explained that unscheduled, erratic power outages and exorbitant peak-hour commercial electricity tariffs imposed by the state electricity board had severely damaged production schedules and escalated overhead costs. In addition, small business owners highlighted severe working capital credit constraints and alleged that the AIADMK administration systematically disregarded local MSMEs in government procurement tenders, favouring politically connected conglomerates from other states. As a result, hundreds of precision engineering workshops and pump manufacturing units faced closure or operated at fractional capacity. Stalin criticized the state government for abandoning Coimbatore's vibrant entrepreneurial backbone. He pledged that a future DMK government would guarantee uninterrupted quality power supply, establish state credit guarantee funds, and mandate statutory quotas for local MSMEs in all public procurement tenders to revitalize the region's manufacturing economy.