BKRG and KMA Against Hartal

KOCHI:
Better Kochi Response Group (BKRG) and Kerala Management Association (KMA) jointly organised a meeting of various associations, chambers of commerce, CREDAI, ‘Say No to Hartal volunteers ‘, residential association, Anpodu Kochi volunteers, Institute of architects and interior decorators, and some prominent leaders like Kochouseph Chittilappally , Benny Joseph (Janapaksham) , M C Roy, representatives from KSRTC etc on the issue of Hartal.
S. Gopakumar president of BKRG initiated the discussion and said that the biggest problem the state is facing now is Hartal. Knowingly or unknowingly people fall for this hartal out of fear factor. Most of the Hartals are called by political parties and it is high time that they understand that it doing more harm than good.
Vivek Govind president of KMA said that we all take a decision not to get influenced by the fear factor. Various organisations should put our head together to find a solution to this problem. ‘Say No To Hartal volunteers are doing a great job by transporting people, patients and visitors to the city.
Some of the points which came up during the discussion are: Strong measures should be taken on this issue
Should not support any party who calls for hartal, Individual rights to use vehicles, open shops etc cannot be stopped and should get legal protection.
It was also suggested to get insurance coverage to all shops for hartal damage to take the fear factor out.
Declaration of schools and offices on hartal is not a good trend. This will only help those calling for hartal.
We must have enough CCTV coverage to detect hooliganism .
We must fight this menace through legal methods, mass movements and social media. It was surprising that the court is not taking any action against the people who forcefully closed shops and stopped vehicles though they had issued an order not to do so. It was decided to organise a wider organisation involving more people and to organise a public meeting and work towards declining Kochi a Hartal Free City.