Tent house owners, caterers take out car rally on day 1 of protest

Ludhiana: The two-day statewide strike called by tent house owners, caterers and other allied service providers started here on Tuesday. Accusing the state government of not paying any attention to their woes, the businessmen related with the industry held car rallies in different parts of the city, along with the drivers of commercial vehicles, workers, staff, etc. The businessmen have stopped accepting any work orders till Wednesday and they will keep their shops shut and will hang posters of their demands on their properties.
Giving more information, Raj Aggarwal, president of the Ludhiana Tent Dealers Welfare Association (LTDWA), said “The first day of our strike was very successful as all our members participated in the protest with full enthusiasm and car rallies were conducted in different parts of the city. We got huge support from our staff, workers and all other persons attached with us who also participated in these rallies. The main motive of this entire movement which will continue on Wednesday as well is to wake up the state government and ask it to pay attention towards the huge problems we are facing and the plight of businessmen, workers and their families who are attached with this business.”
He further said, “Our major demands include doing away with the capping of number of persons allowed in marriage and other functions as this is killing our business. Until the capping goes, there will be no revival of our businesses and along with loss of thousands of jobs in Ludhiana alone, hundreds of businesses will shut down permanently.”
According to Shiv Shankar Rai, general secretary of the association, “Along with the restriction on the number of persons, the 9pm deadline to close everything is killing our industry. We want the deadline to be extended to at least till 11pm as this will give push to our business as people will start organising functions with proper budget. Presently, we are incurring huge losses as no functions are allowed beyond 30 persons and the function should end by 9pm as per the lockdown guidelines.”
He added, “On Tuesday, we kept our offices and shops completely closed and did not attend even a single query. Our protest will continue on Wednesday as well and we plan to hang banners of our demands on the shutters of our shops and take selfies. Then we will post our pictures on social media by tagging all leaders of ruling and opposition parties, so that they wake up to our problems.”