The Jammu Chamber of Commerce and Industry Saturday called a bandh in Jammu on September 22 over “directionless policies” of the UT administration affecting the business fraternity.
It raised a range of issues, including closure of wine shops, restrictions on banquet halls, opening of Reliance stores and the ending of the annual darbar move, among others.
On wine shops, the organisation said in a statement: “Firstly it was wine shop owners who got the jolt by the so-called New Excise Policy and now the liquor bar owners are the next targets of the anti-Jammu administration. Hundreds of wine traders have lost their livelihood after the introduction of e-auction of liquor vends in Jammu and Kashmir.”
The Jammu traders body also expressed resentment over the “proposal of big companies like Reliance to open stores in Jammu in the retail sector”. It said if that happens, “small shopkeepers of Jammu will be ruined”. “The Annual Darbar Move process was aimed at maintaining communal harmony and brotherhood especially among the people of Jammu and Kashmir regions and ending this process would have an adverse impact not only upon the traditional bond between the two regions and their people but also on the business community.”