PM Modi to inaugurate Surat Diamond Bourse today: Chief of union that plans sit-in detained

In a memorandum handed out to Surat District Collector Ayush Oak, and addressed to Chief Minister Bhupendra Patel, the DWUG said that after the Diwali vacation, many diamond units continue to be shut. Those that have opened are running with a reduction in production targets and working hours. The staff strength has gone down, the memorandum mentioned. It has underlined that many diamond workers took loans for survival. The diamond industry in Surat this year witnessed one of the longest breaks in the history of the industry, the members claimed.

“The newly built Surat Diamond Bourse (SDB) will be inaugurated on December 17 by Prime Minister Narendra Modi, and our demand is the state government should declare an economic package for diamond workers,” the union says, adding that the families of workers who died by suicide should also be given financial aid.

After receiving an application for a sit-in at Mangadh Chowk in Varachha on Sunday morning, Surat police detained Zilariya from Amroli in Surat. Police teams also reached the house of DWUG Surat president Bhavesh Tank and other members, but they could not be traced.
Meanwhile, security has been heightened in the Mangadh Chowk area.

Varachha police inspector A N Gabani said, “The DWUG applied for the police permission to carry out the dharna program, but the members have not come up when called by our teams to carry out the procedure.”

A senior DWUG member told The Sunday Express that after Zilariya’s detention, several members “went underground to prevent detention”.

Meanwhile, claimed by its architects — the Delhi-based Morphogenesis — as the “world’s biggest workspace”, SDB has reportedly beaten US’s Pentagon in capacity by having 4,200 diamond trading offices and aims to shift the entire diamond trading business out of Mumbai to Surat.