Thiruvananthapuram/Kochi: Over 35 trade organisations in Kerala Thursday came together against the rampant strike calls by various political parties in the state and decided to observe 2019 as ‘anti-hartal year.’
Kerala Vyapari Vyavasayi Ekopana Samiti (KVVES) and other organisations, under the aegis of ‘anti-hartal front’, have decided to defy hartal calls and open shops, run buses and carry on business from now on. The front includes trade organisations, bus owners associations and tourism sector organisations, among others.
“There were 97 hartals last year. The traders, hoteliers, bus owners and other establishments were facing loss of crores of rupees due to such flash hartals,” KVVES state president T Nasarudheen told PTI.
Earlier, the trouble faced by traders were from trade unions and labour organisations but now their role has been taken over by the political parties, he said. “We want all the political parties to co-operate with us. Even a minister had said the political parties need to find an alternative to such flash strike calls,” he said.
Nasarudheen also requested media outlets to refrain from reporting on calls for hartal by various outfits. The KVVES has instead asked them to report on such matters only on the day after the hartal. A joint meeting of 28 organisations in the tourism sector, which was convened at Kochi Thursday, passed a six-point resolution to ensure that services of the tourism industry were not hit due to shutdown.
The forum – Kerala Tourism Task Force, an initiative of the Kerala Travel Mart (KTM) – said the tourism industry would vehemently protest shutdowns which have become detrimental to the sector. KTM is an organisation focusing on promoting tourism in Kerala.
The forum also made it clear that they would not participate in the nation-wide strike called by ten central trade unions to protest government’s “anti-worker policies.”
A resolution adopted at the meeting demanded that the government provide police protection for the safety and security of tourists and tourism sector and uninterrupted functioning of institutions and services during hartals.
The forum also decided to approach the government and other organizations, seeking evolving a consensus to bring an end to the trend of enforcing hartals, obstructing free movement and freedom of functioning of service-providers and institutions.
The BJP had called for a state-wide hartal on 14 December after a 55-year-old man died setting himself afire near the venue of the party’s protest at Thiruvananthapuram.
This was the second state-wide hartal in the state within a span of three weeks. Besides this, there were hartals called by the saffron party at Pathanamthitta and Thiruvananthapuram districts as part of their Sabarimala protests.
Many trade organisations have come out openly against the rampant strike calls by the political parties as they were still recovering from the deluge in August.