Thousands of Jewellers under the banner of Chhattisgarh Sarafa Association entered the 29th day of their strike against the proposed one percent excise duty hike on non-silver Jewellery on Wednesday.

Despite this strike the members are ensuring financial support to the poor artisans in their business.

“Around 8,000 to 9000 gold Jewellery artisans of Raipur and 1, 20,000 labourers in the State are losing their daily wages due to the strike. The majority ones belong to West Bengal have returned home while the locals are supported by us with three times meals in our organized ‘langar’ near Kotwali,” said Ashok Kumar Golcha, Secretary of Chhattisgarh Sarafa Association.

“We even distributed advance payments to these local labourers as they have no other source of family income,” he said.

Taking the protest to a higher level, the members of the organization have announced to quit the membership of Bharatiya Janta Party (BJP) to show their objection on the Union government’s announcement regarding the  Hike in excise duty.

“Following the decisions of the national wing of our Sarafa Association, as many as one lakh Jewellers of Chhattisgarh including their families will soon quit the BJP. This is to show our lost hope over the ruling party at the Centre and State,” said A Pagariya, Secretary of Raipur Sarafa Association.

Notably, the state members are determined to continue their strike in the upcoming marriage season as well if Prime Minister Narendra Modi does not roll back the proposed excise duty in a meeting with the president of the National Sarafa Association on April 4.

Raipur Sarafa Association Joint Secretary AK Soni stated that the everyday the State government is incurring sales tax loss of `5 lakh for a turnover of ` 5 crore.“The Union government considers the liquor and Jewellery businessmen in the same category. We cannot agree to the excise duty meant for the liquor ones. Our fields are completely different,” pointed Soni.