Nationwide strike call evokes no major response in Majha
AMRITSAR: The nationwide strike call given by the Confederation of All India Traders (CAIT) in protest against the spike in fuel prices and the new e-way bill on Friday elicited no major response in Punjab’s Majha region as all the markets remained open and transport services ran as usual.
The members of Punjab Pradesh Vyapar Mandal, Amritsar Distributors Association and other trade unions on Friday handed over a memorandum to Amritsar deputy commissioner of state tax Rajvinder Kaur and later staged a protest outside the office of deputy commissioner Gurpreet Singh.
“From traders, farmers, shopkeepers to labourers, the common man was affected by the recent amendment in the GST laws and the skyrocketing prices of fuel. The policies being made by the Bjp-led central government are ‘anti-people’. In the name of amendments in the Goods and Services Tax (GST) bill, the government is unnecessarily increasing the prices of petrol, diesel and LPG, burning a hole in people’s pockets,” said Amritsar Distributors Association (ADA) president Anil Kapoor.
He added that traders not only demand scrapping of the GST bill but are also backing the farmers’ protest against the three contentious laws as well as the transporters’ stir against the new e-way bill. All these black laws should be scrapped immediately, he demanded.
The traders were seen raising slogans against the central government in various cities and towns of the region.