Surat: The textile traders on Saturday afternoon had taken out a massive rally against the GST on man-made fibre (MMF). They also submitted a memorandum to the district collector. The entire rally was peaceful, not a single untoward incident had taken place in Textile market areas on Ring Road in Surat.
The rally covered the Textile market on a circular route of 3 km as they were denied the permission of covering another route of 7 km to the Collectorate, by the police. Strict police arrangements had been laid in the Textile market area to prevent any untoward incident, reports Indian Express.
The police department had granted rally permission with a condition that it should be taken out in the limit of textile trading markets. The agitation of Surat Textile Traders was started on June 5.
The GST Sangharsh Samiti members on Friday had met Union Minister of state for road transport and highway Mansukh Mandaviya who assured them that he would take their questions to the GST Council.
He, however, ruled out exempting of the GST of 5 percent from MMF. Mandaviya had requested them to call off the rally, but the agitating body had said it would continue the stir till their issues would be addressed.
The police had taken necessary precautions by deploying videographers at different locations, to maintain peace throughout the rally. With such large number of textile traders gathered on Ring Road, Surat police had diverted the traffic to other routes.
After the rally was completed, the delegations of Textile Traders went to Surat district collector office and handed him the memorandum demanding that no GST be levied on the textile trading segment.