Kochi:
With merchants coming out strongly against forced closure
of shops, a mass movement is gathering momentum in Kerala
against frequent hartals (strikes) that cripple
normal life and cause a loss of Rs700 crore to the state's
economy for every day's forced closure.
Several
organisations and prominent personalities will gather
in the first week of December to discuss the measures
to counter such hartals, said Congress leader and
former non resident Keralites affairs minister, M M Hassan.
He said the Nehru Centre, headed by him, would take the
initiative to hold the meeting, in which prominent legal
experts, human rights activists, writers and citizens
would participate.
''Kerala
witnessed 123 hartals, including state-wide and regional
ones, last year. Though the High Court had banned bandhs
(closures), its new avatar hartal continues to cripple
normal life. As per estimates, the state's economy suffers
a loss of more than Rs700 crore per day due to a hartal.
If one takes into account the losses in the unorganised
sector, the amount will be manifold,'' he added.
Hassan
recollected that he had staged a 24-hour fast in front
of the Martyr's Column in 1996 and thereafter had never
participated in any hartal, including those organised
by his party. In line with the Kerala High Court verdict,
the government should enact a legislation to recover the
losses suffered by the common man during hartals
from its organisers.
Similarly,
the government should ban all demonstrations in front
of the state Secretariat and provide an alternative place
for staging such protest meetings, he added. Stating that
non-resident Keralites were strongly opposed to frequent
hartals, he said the government should take effective
measures to prevent agitations that posed an impediment
to the overall development of the state.
Pointing
out that Kerala witnessed two state-wide hartals
in a gap of eight days this month, he said political parties
should make sure that a hartal was organised on
the rarest of the rare occasion. Since certain political
parties were strongly opposed to bringing even some restrictions
on hartals, he took the initiative to build a mass
movement against it, he said, adding that chief minister
Oommen Chandy should convene a meeting of political parties
to discuss the issue.
It
may be recalled that Kerala Vyapari Vyavasayi Ekopanasamithy
president T. Nasurudin had announced that shops
and business establishments henceforth would be kept open
during hartals too, as they were politically motivated.
|