Jewellers protest against excise duty during Swaraj's visit

Jewellers in Vidisha town of Madhya Pradesh today protested against the one per cent excise duty imposed in the Budget on non-silver jewellery, during the visit by local MP and External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj.
She was here to attend a meeting of the District Monitoring Committee.
Gold traders, jewellers and artisans have been observing strike across the country since March 2, demanding rollback of the budgetary proposal that has impacted the trade.
"We have been agitating for the last 40 days but no BJP leader visited us," said Vidisha Sarafa Association president Rajendra Saraf.
"We were expecting that Swaraj would visit us and support our just demands, but when she did not turn up we went to Neemtal area and showed black flags to her and shouted slogans," he said and claimed police arrested some 200 agitating jewellers.

However, City Superintendent of Police Nagendra Pateria said only 80 jewellers were arrested and taken to Kararia police station where they were released in the evening.
Meanwhile, the day-long bandh (for all shops and offices) called by local Sarafa Association, which was supported by Congress and AAP had a mixed response in Indore city. Shops near Sarafa Bazar were closed, but elsewhere they were open.
At Hoshangabad, jewellers staged 'Jal-Satyagarha' (protest by standing in water) at Veer Savarkar Ghat on the banks of river Narmada.