The merchants were buying salt from Gujarat to meet Tamil Nadu's demand, he said. The salt industry was facing a crisis, he said.
"We are concerned that we have to get salt from Gujarat to sell to the local people. As Tuticorin district is having a long coastal area,salt-pans had been constructed over 20,000 acres but these were submerged due to the torrential rains in March. Now we are not in a position to re-dig the saltpans as it involved huge investment," he said.
"We could not gather (harvest) salt from the saltpans in May, June, July and August this year.There is no salt production. Labourers as well as salt pan owners have been affected."
He urged the government to provide compensation for saltpan owners so that they could revive salt production,which was second to agriculture in Tuticorin,and also provide power at subsidised rate.