| Govt out to wipe out Jammu’s retail sector, alleges CCI Sr VP Anil Gupta | | ‘Conspiracy has been hatched to finish traditional businesses’ | |  Early Times Report
Jammu, Oct 1: Criticising the government for not showing seriousness to address the burning issues of business community of Jammu, especially the retailers, who are in panic after opening of Reliance Retail stores in Jammu region, Senior Vice President Chamber of Commerce and Industry (CCI) Jammu, Anil Gupta on Friday alleged that the government seems hell bent to wipe out retail sector of Jammu region. “Most of the people in Jammu are associated with retail business and now with the opening of Reliance Retail Stores, the entire sector will be finished, which will create unemployment. Over a lakh of retail outlets will be shut,” he told Early Times.
The government should ensure that big companies like Reliance Industries should not be allowed to venture into retailing business as it will affect a huge population, which is totally dependent on retailing business to run their livelihood. Talking about the impact of the Jammu bandh call, Gupta said that the call was a great success. “After the success of the bandh call, the government extended the timing of shops, and the number of guest capacity in the banquet was increased from 25 to 50 and it is expected that soon it will be increased more. If air flights have been thrown open to full capacity after decline in COVID cases, then what is the reason that banquet halls can’t be opened at full capacity,” he asked. He said that the Chamber of Commerce and Industry Jammu is committed to project the issues of traders, retailers and it will continue to highlight them before the government. “We are very disappointed that the government is not taking the matter seriously and seems in no mood to resolve the issues,” he said, further adding CCI Jammu has been continuously holding meetings to assess the situation. “The government has not invited us till date for any deliberations on various issues of the business community. The government has been ignoring us but still we are hopeful that things will move further soon,” Gupta said. He said, “We are facing several problems like property tax, cancellation of existing wine shops licences and now the opening of 100 Reliance retail stores will aggravate the situation.” Commenting on the controversial JK Land Revenue Act, which prohibits Mahajans, Khatris and Sikh to purchase agricultural land in Jammu and Kashmir, he said that despite conversion of erstwhile State into a Union Territory, the discriminatory law has not been abolished. |
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