TN may manufacture TVs to meet promise

Tamil Nadu government is exploring the possibility of setting up a manufacturing unit to produce television sets to be given to people, as promised by Chief Minister M Karunanidhi during the recent assembly election.

It's not over for the private electronics producers, though. As the CM intends to launch the scheme by September 15, the government will have to turn to private players to procure at least a part of the total requirement, which is estimated to be 6.4 to 10 million TV sets. As of now, there is uncertainty as to how the government intends to go about it.

Emerging out of 10, Janpath where Karunanidhi had an hour-long meeting with Congress president Sonia Gandhi on Monday morning, Minister for Communications and Information Technology Dayanidhi Maran, who had accompanied the CM, said the DMK regime would revive the ambitious Nanguneri Special Economic Zone (SEZ) project, which had been put on the backburner by the previous AIADMK regime.

"We will set up a factory in this SEZ to manufacture the colour TV sets to fulfil the poll promises," said Maran.

State government officials later explained that the government was looking into the possibility of handing over the entire project to set up a factory to manufacture the TV sets at Nanguneri to Electronics Corporation of Tamil Nadu Ltd (Elcot), the state-run agency for promoting IT industries in the state.

But Karunanidi said in a press conference in the evening that nothing had been decided yet. A committee had been constituted to look into the details, he added.