Shops of traders owing allegiance to the Kerala Vyapari Vyavasayi Ekopana Samiti (KVVES) remained closed on Wednesday as part of their Statewide protest against the alleged flaws in the implementation of the GST regime.
KVVES leaders said their protest evoked the cooperation of around 50,000 members in Kozhikode district.
“Though the agitation was mainly against the faulty implementation of the GST regime, it also highlighted the merchants’ concerns over the strict implementation of source-level waste treatment project without much planning and the widening of roads in thickly populated areas,” said Ashraf Moothedath, district general secretary of KVVES.
He said the merchants were not against the implementation of any scientific source-level waste treatment project, but the government should first check whether it would be possible for all small traders. It would have been more practical if the government had come up with an action plan sharing the responsibility, he observed.
KVVES leaders also called for the review of all road widening plans that would displace the traders without any reasonable compensation and rehabilitation package.
Road development should be implemented in consultation with people’s committees, rather than going ahead with just technical reports of the government officers, they said.
