Country-wide protest against corporate retail

Lucknow, May 28 (UNI) Traders under the banner of Rashtriya Vaypar Mandal will hold a country-wide agitation on August 9 to protest the government's permission to corporates to ender retail business.

They will also stage a dharna in front of all shopping malls in the country on August 22 to show their protest due to which more than 40 million small shopkeepers would be affected in the country.

Before this, the traders will hold 50 hour long 'Satyagrah' in Delhi from July 17 and protest outside Parliament on August 16 in support of their nine-point charter of demand, which includes a ban on retail business by any multinational company.

Addressing a press conference here today, Rashtriya Vaypar Mandal president Banwari Lal Kanchal said that traders are united against the multinationals and will not allow them to do their business in the retail sector.

''Retail companies like Reliance, Bharati, Sahara, Walmart and others would affected more than 200 million people of the country, whose main source of income is through small retail outlets'', Mr Kanchal, a Samajwadi Party Rajya Sabha member, claimed.

Talking about the impact on the entry of corporate sector in the retail business, he said most of the small markets in the country would be wiped out and their family members will be forced to starvation.

Mr Kanchal, also demanded that the Centre immediately ban online trading of commodities which was the main reason for increase of their prices in the country.

UNI