With the Tamil Nadu chief minister J Jayalalithaa assuming office for the second consecutive time, garment makers and exporters in Tirupur have made a fresh appeal to her government to set up a training centre to meet the growing demand of skilled workers in the industry.

“We are asking for a training centre as the garment cluster faces extreme shortage of skilled workers, who have the ability to produce value-added apparels,” president of Tirupur Exporters and Manufacturers Association (TEMA) M P Muthurathinam said.

The TEMA also emphasised the need for government assistance to construct houses for migrant workers employed in the cluster.

“Tirupur cluster has always depended on the migrant labour”, Muthurathinam acknowledged and warned soaring house rentals are driving away many youth from the cluster.

“Unless affordable housing is provided, the cluster will not be any more of an attraction for workers from outside the district,” it was pointed in the list of demands sent by various industrialists to Jayalalithaa as she began her second straight tenure.

Entrepreneurs associated with garment industry also stressed the need for the government to take up infrastructure development, especially road construction on war-footing.