Kerala Chamber to resist UDF 'hartal' call

Kochi, Feb 1 (UNI) The Kerala Chamber of Commerce and Industry today condemned the state-wide 'hartal' called by the opposition UDF in the state on February 19.

Declaring that the business communnity would not support the 'hartal', Chamber president E S Jose in a statement here said that frequent 'hartals' were the root cause for the economic backwardness of Kerala.

''The parties calling for hartals deliberately ignore the loss of crores of rupees due to this illegal mode of agitation. All the people should come forward to defeat the political parties calling hartals,'' he added.

Stating that the Joint Action Council of Chambers of Commerce and Trade Organisations of Kerala had decided in November, 2007, to resist 'hartal' calls, Mr Jose said a meeting of the Joint Action Council had been called for February 6 to chalk out the future course of action in this regard.

The UDF had called the 'hartal' against the general price rise and other issues in the State.

UNI ARC SP KKP2012