Excelsior Correspondent
JAMMU, Sept 16: Calling for a decisive fight against opening of Reliance Retail Stores in Jammu, traders of Nehru Market today warned the Jammu and Kashmir Government of strong protest if the Reliance Retail stores are allowed to open in Jammu.
Addressing a press conference here today, Deepak Gupta, president, Traders Federation Ware House (Nehru Market), expressed strong displeasure over the proposal of big companies like Reliance to open stores in Jammu in the retail sector, saying that if this happens then small shopkeepers of Jammu will be ruined and their shops will be closed.
Gupta said that when the Modi Government abolished Article 370, we all celebrated and welcomed it, but in these two years we saw that the small shopkeepers of Jammu are dying out and the big traders of big cities of the country are coming here to do business.
“We saw what happened to the wine traders in Jammu. Now the bars have also been closed. The business of brick kilns came to an end. We have been continuously appealing to the Government for the last two years to take some steps to save the small traders of Jammu but no plea is being heard,” he added.
He said now the Government has given permission to open the network of Reliance Fresh stores in Jammu. “Reliance is opening more than 100 stores in Jammu province. These stores will sell everything from groceries to medicines and electronics to liquor. Then who will go to the small shopkeepers running the shops in our streets when these stores are opened, Gupta asked.
Gupta said if the Government does not listen to them and does not stop Reliance Store from coming to Jammu, they will come on roads, hold dharnas and go on hunger strike. He also appealed the people of Jammu not to give land to Reliance to open such store to save the small businessmen of their city.
Prithvi Pal Gupta (ex-general secretary, CCI Jammu), Kirti Gupta (president, Dal Merchant Association), Rajesh Bhagotra (president, Sugar Association), Munish Mahajan (senior vice president, Traders Federation Ware House Nehru Market), Abhimanyu Gupta (vice president), Sham Lal Langer (general secretary), Vishal Gupta (secretary) and Amit Gupta (cashier of the Federation) were also present.
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