Summit sidelines: diamond workers protest against govt

Opposing the gala event of Vibrant Gujarat Global Investors’ Summit,the diamond market workers of Vivekanand Diamond Association staged a demonstration at Thaltej Circle on Monday. The protestors raised banners and shouted slogans against the Gujarat government.

Babu Patel,member of the association,alleged that the state government is turning a blind eye to the fate of 20 lakh workers,who are sitting jobless from days together. He added that while the state government was wooing foreign investors and industrialists,it was not doing anything concrete for the jobless diamond workers who have taken to suicides and are desperate for survival.

Narsinh Patel,president of the association,said that the diamond industry in Gujarat has received a major blow. About 80 per cent of the factories have been shutdown,leaving lakhs of workers jobless. The workers have been struggling to get meals,pay tuition fees of their kids and pay rent of their houses.

The workers want to forward the demands for government’s monetary package,education of their children,sufficient availability of food grains and easy availability of loans for the community members.