Excelsior Correspondent
JAMMU, Apr 18: Demanding immediate withdrawal of notification allowing e-commerce giants to supply non-essentials while denying the same to offline traders during covid-19 restrictions, Neeraj Anand, National Vice-President, Confederation of All India Traders, (CAIT) has said that traders would resist any move that creates stress among small retail traders who are already facing survival issues.
He said that they were not expecting such biased decision from the current dispensation, especially so when it was the Mohalla Shops that played crucial role in maintaining supply lines without hiking any price.
“If you notice, no death due to hunger has been reported from any district across the nation and meals to over two crore people were provided daily by this fraternity only. We are receiving many complaints against this notification in Jammu also; being a trade dependent State, we on behalf of all brick and mortars stores resent any such move,” said Neeraj Anand.
Earlier, in an urgent meeting of office bearers of Chamber of Traders Federation, it was decided to send an urgent letter of dissent to Prime Minister’s Office.
The meeting also extended deep appreciation for the way the Government was proactively dealing with this unprecedented crisis due to COVID-19 and trying its best to ensure safety and security of every Indian Citizen. India today is in a much better situation as compared to the rest of the world and this has happened mainly due to the bold and pragmatic approach of the Government led by Narendra Modi, observed the CTF team.
However, serious reservations were expressed with respect to the Home Ministry guidelines of 15th April, which have allowed e- commerce companies to begin their business activities from 21st April onwards, particularly for non-essential goods.
“It will be highly unfair if the e- commerce players are allowed to deliver all kinds of non- essential goods whereas brick and mortar retailers are allowed to deal only in essential commodities. This will create further imbalance in the level playing field and give rise to unnecessary conflicts. This decision of the Government has come as a huge disappointment to the traders of India,” the meet concluded.
Raman Gupta, Shiv Kr Gupta, Dinesh Gupta, Tushaar Gupta, Praveen Gupta, Ajay Gupta and Parag Abrol were present in the meeting.
Follow our WhatsApp channel
