KOCHI: Sitting of the Assembly subject committee on the proposed Hartal Regulation Bill held here on Monday witnessed heated arguments for and against the bill.
During the sitting, chaired by home minister Ramesh Chennithala, students, tour operators and representatives of commercial firms strongly supported the bill, while trade union representatives objected the move.
The sitting was to seek opinion and suggestions from the public on the proposed bill. The state government proposed such bill based on a High Court verdict.
According to tour operators, frequent hartals have been badly affecting the tourism industry and the neighbouring countries like Sri Lanka are taking the advantage. Some of the stakeholders sought exemption for private vehicles during hartals.
A law student said that it was high time to regulate hartals which cause students to miss exams and classes, and investors opportunities.
MLAs V.D Satheesan, Hibi Eden, K. Muraleedharan, A.K Balan and Suresh Kurup were present during the sitting.
Some of the major recommendations of the Bill are a notification of three days to conduct hartals, depositing fixed amount by the organisation concerned and arrest of those involved in hartal-related violence without warrants.
Raju P Nair, convener of Say No to Hartal campaign, told DC that during the sitting they demanded more stringent provisions in the bill.
They demanded that the notification period should be increased to one week. The minister said that the bill will be passed during the tenure of the present government.
