TN CM wilfully neglected Centre’s contribution in SIPCOT housing facility: BJP

Chennai, Aug 18 (IANS) Tamil Nadu BJP on Sunday said that Chief Minister M.K. Stalin wilfully neglected the contribution of the Union government in the construction of the SIPCOT housing facility.

“Built at an estimated cost of Rs 707 crore, the 18,720-bed dormitory in Vallam-Vadigal has a component of a Central government grant of Rs 37.44 crore and a term loan of Rs 498 crore from the State Bank of India,” Tamil Nadu BJP President K. Annamalai wrote on X.He added that the Affordable Rented Housing Complexes (ARHCs) under PMAY-U were launched in July 2020 and the housing project in Sriperumbudur and Chennai was among the five ARHC projects sanctioned to Tamil Nadu by Prime Minister Narendra Modi in September 2021.He said that the BJP is certain that M.K Stalin is aware of the Central government’s contribution to the project but willfully neglect its mention to the people of Tamil Nadu. On Saturday, Tamil Nadu Chief Minister M.K. Stalin inaugurated the country’s, first of its kind, mega industrial housing project built by the State Industries Promotion Corporation of Tamil Nadu (SIPCOT).This facility is to exclusively house 18,720 women employees of Foxconn on a room-sharing basis at Sriperumbudur.The project was conceived in an area of 20 acres and for Rs 720 crore. Foxconn assembles Apple iPhones and it has 12 manufacturing plants across the world and the company has set up two units in Sriperumbudur. The Foxconn facility at Sriperumbudur employs 41,000 employees; out of them, 35,000 are women.The industrial housing project comes more than two years after Foxconn’s employees protested against a food poisoning episode, resulting in a temporary plant shutdown. Things were set right after intervention from the state government and Apple.–IANSaal/dan