Chennai, Jun 10 (IANS): Tamil Nadu assembly Speaker M. Appavu has written to Chief Minister M.K. Stalin to appoint a committee to study the issue of several industries that remain closed in the state due to the policies of the previous state and central governments.

Appavu requested the Chief Minister to sort out the problems of the closed industries and try for their revival. He said that 20 lakh skilled and unskilled workers had lost their jobs.

He called upon the state government to release the 2500 acres of land that was acquired for the Nanguneri Multiproduct Special Economic Zone conceived by then Chief Minister, late M. Karunanidhi which did not take off. Appavu requested Stalin to convert this land for establishing small, marginal, and medium industries.

Appavu said that the Gangaikondan Information Technology Special Zone conceived by Karunanidhi was put in cold storage by the then government and asked Stalin to revive it.

He said that the matchbox and firecracker industries of Thoothukudi and Virudhunagar districts which provide employment to more than 10 lakh persons to meet 95% of the matches and firecracker requirement of the country are facing an uncertain future. He added that Gujarat-based importers are being encouraged to import matchboxes and crackers from China which would destroy the Tamil Nadu-based industries.

Appavu said that cotton prices are being deliberately jacked up to destroy the textile industries of the state after the Coimbatore-based pump industry was decimated by the central government policies.

He urged Stalin to appoint a committee headed by a Secretary level officer to study these serious issues and ensure that these industries are revived at the earliest.