Mass movement against hartal gathering momentum in state, Nov. 2004 THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: With merchants coming out strongly against forced closing down of shops, a mass movement is gathering momentum in the state against frequent hartals that cripple normal life and cause a loss of Rs 700 crore a day to the state's economy. Congress leader and former Non-Resident Keralites Affairs Minister M M Hassan told newspersons here today that several ogransiations and prominent personalities would gather here in the first week of December to discuss the measures to be taken to counter such hartals. He said the Nehru Centre, headed by him, would take the initiative to hold the meeting, in which prominent legal experts, human rights activists, writers and people from all walks of life would participate. "The state witnessed 123 hartals, including state wide and regional ones, last year. Though the High Court had banned bandhs, its new 'avatar' hartal continues to cripple normal life. As per estimates the state's economy suffers a loss of more than Rs 700 crore per day due to a hartal. If one takes into account the losses in the unorganized sector, the amount will be manifold," he added. "In tune with the High Court vedict, the government should enact a legislation to recover the losses suffered by the common man during the hartal from its organisers. Similarly, the government should ban all demonstrations in front of the secretariat and provide an alternative place for staging such protest meetings, he added. Stating that non-resident Keralites were strongly opposed to frequent hartals, he said the government should take effective measures to prevent such agitations that posed an impediment to the state's overall development. Pointing out that Kerala witnessed two state wide hartals in a gap of eight days this month; he said political parties should make sure that a hartal was organized on the rarest of the rare occasion. Since certain political parties were strongly opposed to bringing in some restrictions on hartals, he took the initiative to build a mass movement against it, he said, adding that Chief Minister Oommen Chandy should convene a meeting of political parties to discuss the issue.