Excelsior Correspondent
JAMMU, Apr 25: As the Central Government failed to fulfill the promises made with the bullion traders, the latter resumed their strike and again came on roads.
The bullion traders are protesting against the proposed one per cent hike in the excise duty on non-silver jewellery.
Earlier, they held protest for six weeks after March 2, 2016 and after the Central Government’s assurance to redress the issues of the jewellers, they suspended their strike for 12 days.
As no concrete steps have been taken by the Central Government to redress the issues of the bullion traders, the latter resumed their strike and took to roads again.
Large number of jewellers, swarnkars, karigars and artisans resumed their protest at old protesting site–Jain Bazaar to project their demands, to which the Central Government has turned a blind eye.
The protesters raised slogans against the Central Government and Union Finance Minister Arun Jaitley for back-stepping from their promises made with the traders, engaged in the profession of production and manufacturing of gold jewellery.
Addressing the protesters, Raman Suri, Chairman, Sarafa Association and Swarnkar Sangh Joint Action Committee, Jammu Province takes a dig over Central Government for not redressing the demands of the bullion traders despite assurance.
He added that the lenient way in dealing with the issues of the jewellers reflects that the Central Government is just using the tactics of previous Government, to whom the jewellers had shown the door for their anti-bullion traders’ policy during its regime in the Centre.
“Today we have created history in peaceful protests as association sealed all the jewellery shops of Jammu Province. During strike, no jeweller or swarnkar will purse his/her business. We know that the customers will face great inconvenience due to this strike, but it is mainly for their benefit only”, Suri asserted.
Warning the Central Government and Union Finance Minister, he said, “Today’s rally at Jantar Mantar was a sign of rage of the jewellers all over India. Government should act upon our issues at the earliest, otherwise this delay will strongly affect their vote bank in crores all across India”.
Raj Kumar Babbar, All India Vice President Swarnkar Sangh and President Swarnkar Sangh, Jammu Province, Parjan Kumar Jain, President Sarafa Association Jammu, Vijay Kumar Verma, General Secretary Sarafa Association Jammu, Kulbhushan Anand, President Swarnkar Sangh Jammu District, Vijay Kumar Verma, General Secretary Sarafa Association, Ajay Vaid, General Secretary, Swarnkar Sangh, Jammu District, Surinder Jain, Treasurer Sarafa Association Jammu, besides many others also addressed the protesters.
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