UP traders to strike on Monday

Lucknow, April 2: Traders across Uttar Pradesh is set go on a strike on Monday to express solidarity with the ongoing protests by jewellers against the additional excise duty levied by the union finance ministry.

UP Udyog Vyapar Mandal officials informed that cloth merchants, food grain traders will also join the strike.

Over 300,000 jewellery shops owing allegiance to more than 300 associations across India went on strike since the excise duty announcement in the budget presented on February 29.

More than 1,200 jewellery shops in the state capital have remained shut since the strike began.

Late Friday, angry jewellers demanded Union Ministers Manoj Sinha and Sanjeev Baliyan for a rollback in the additional excise duty.

The ministers were in Lucknow to attend a state executive meet of the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP)

IANS