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Kerala traders to strike on Nov 29 against retail FDI
Shops and commercial establishments across Kerala will remain closed on November 29 as part of an agitation to protest against the Central decision to allow 51 per cent foreign direct investment (FDI) in multi-brand retail sector.
“The shutdown on November 29 is just a token protest but we will launch intense agitations against the decision,” T Nazeeuddin, president, Kerala Vyapari Vyavasayi Ekopana Samithi, said in Kozhikode on Friday. “We are meeting in Thrissur on December 5 to chalk out further porgrammes of agitation,” he said.
Nazeeruddin said that as many as one million traders would participate in the stir against the ‘arbitrary’ decision the Central Government had taken in violation of Constitutional protection banning entry of corporate and big business houses to the trade sector.
Stating that the entry of big business houses and retail giants in the sector would adversely affect the small and marginal traders throughout the country, he said the Central move would put one million shop owners, their families and about five million workers in the State in jeopardy in Kerala alone.
Nazeeruddin said that the Samithi would submit memorandums to CM Oommen Chandy, Industries Minister PK Kunhalikutty and Finance Minister KM Mani demanding State Government’s intervention. The organisation would take out demonstrations and stage dharnas in all the district headquarters in the State on Tuesday as a mark its protest, he added. Traders belonging to the Samithi said that it would be difficult for them to compete with multi-national retail giants who would be rushing to tap the huge Indian market opened up to them. They would have plenty of capital, technology and logistics to procure goods and keep them for a long time. Such a scenario would affect the local traders badly, they said.
Traders ranging from those in the village level to wholesalers would become victims of “this globalisation measure” of PM Manmohan Singh, said a trader in Kozhikode.
