Micro industry owner enters the election fray

For K. Maniraj, 58, the Assembly election has given a new turn to his life. He has jumped into the fray.

Having ventured into manufacturing in 1989 with a bank loan of ₹20,000, Mr. Maniraj had worked long hours and handled multiple tasks to grow to provide jobs to 25 persons now. When the Bureau of Indian Standards marking became mandatory in 2006 for pumps, he founded an industrial body, Kovai Power Driven Pump Manufacturers Association (KOPMA), to represent the hardships that the micro units faced. “In 2015, when there was an economic slowdown we [the micro units] suffered losses. Then came demonetisation. When we came out of that, the government introduced the GST. We are yet to recover from the impact of the GST. Then, it was the pandemic. Though the government extended support to the micro, small and medium enterprises [MSMEs] in June last year, it did not help all the micro units. Worse, there was no one to take up the plight of these units. None of the elected representatives came to our rescue,” Mr. Maniraj says.