Traders affiliated to the powerful UP Udyog Vyapar Pratinidhi Mandal, whose agitation led to the abrupt closure of the Reliance Fresh stores in UP last year, will soon launch a vigorous movement to press for this demand.
On August 23, 2007, the UP government ordered closure of Reliance Fresh outlets, a day after 10 stores were opened in Lucknow, citing law and order problems in the wake of traders' protest.
"We want the government to control the uninhibited growth of malls in the country, which is eating into the businesses of the kirana and small stores," Mandal President and Samajwadi Party Rajya Sabha MP Banwari Lal Kanchal said.
He informed that the Parliamentary Standing Committee on Commerce is studying the impact of big malls on small retailers and is expected to submit its report to the Central government by the end of next month.
Kanchal is one of the 31 members comprising the Committee, which is headed by senior BJP leader Murli Manohar Joshi.
"Malaysia and Poland already have such an Act in place to strike the balance between large and small retailers," he added.
The Committee is also studying the Malaysian and Polish legislation in this regard.
The traders' leader claimed that in the last four years, an estimated two crore traders have been rendered jobless due to the opening of big shopping malls in the country.
"The Mandal will soon launch a
