Friday, April 8 2005 16:33 Hrs (IST) - World Time -

Chennai: The Tamil Nadu Assembly witnessed heated debate for over 15 minutes towards the fag end of today's (Apr 8, 2005) sitting, with both the ruling All India Anna Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam (AIADMK) and the main Opposition, Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam (DMK), claiming credit for bringing Nokia's new plant to Sriperumbudur, near Chennai.

While the Chief Minister, Jayalalithaa and her Cabinet colleagues, said that the Rs.1350 crore investment (for the plant and ancillary units) came to the State mainly because of its own efforts, the DMK member, Bharani Kumar, said that the credit should go to the Union Minister, Dayanidhi Maran, who played a major role in bringing the plant to Tamil Nadu.

"It is a spectacular achievement of the State Government and a victory for the State," Jayalalithaa said, when Bharani Kumar, touched on the subject while initiating debate on various demands for grants including legislature, planning and development.

Jayalalithaa said that the plant could be started in the State only if the Centre gave its approval for declaring the area as, 'product-specific special economic zone' as demanded by the Finnish mobile handset giant, Nokia.

A Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) was signed in Chennai on Wednesday (Apr 6, 2005) between the officials of Nokia and the Tamil Nadu Government.

Jayalalithaa said that Nokia had expressed its desire to put up its first plant in India in December last year (2004) and various State Governments vied with each other to grab it.

On coming to know about this, she said that she wrote to the Prime Minister, Manmohan Singh, on January 28 this year (2005), requesting him that if Nokia decided to choose Tamil Nadu, her Government was ready to provide all assistance.

Jayalalithaa said that though States like Maharashtra, Haryana and Tamil Nadu were in the minds of Nokia management, ultimately the Finnish giant settled on Tamil Nadu because of the encouragement from State Government, facilities available in the State, cooperation of officials, prevailing congenial atmosphere and adequate availability of infrastructure and above all, efficient law and order situation.

"It was Nokia which took the ultimate decision of coming to Tamil Nadu and therefore, the credit and victory should go only to our State," she said, amid applause by the treasury bench members.