The Hindu : Tamil Nadu News : CPI(M) asks Government to bar entry of MNCs into retail trading

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Wednesday, Aug 29, 2007
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Tamil Nadu

Tamil Nadu

CPI(M) asks Government to bar entry of MNCs into retail trading

Staff Reporter

‘A large number of people will be rendered jobless’

— PHOTO: N. BASHKARAN

WE PROTEST: CPI(M) cadres blocking the Four Roads in Krishnagiri on Tuesday.

Krishnagiri: More than 200 cadres of the Communist Party of India (CPI (M) resorted to a road-blockade on Four Roads here on Tuesday urging the Union Government to bar the entry of multi-national companies and corporate houses into retail trading. The members were arrested and later released in the evening.

According to District Secretary of CPI(M) D. Ravindran thousands of small traders were already affected as big companies had started to sell vegetables and other products in the retail segment. It would force the traders to close their shops.

The State Government and Centre should take immediate steps to prevent the entry of multinational companies into the country, they claimed. It should ban future trading in various commodities including food items. This had only led to steep rise in prices of essential commodities. A large number of people would be rendered jobless. The Centre should enact a law to protect the sector from the negative impact of globalisation and to safeguard the interests of agricultural labourers and workers in the unorganised sector.

The members also urged the Government to provide 33 per cent reservation for women in Parliament and State legislatures.

Though new industries had come up in the country unemployment still remained. The Government should initiate efforts to include Dharmapuri and Krishnagiri districts under the National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme (NREGS) they added. The CPI (M) also organised picketing in different parts of Krishnagiri and Dharmapuri districts.

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