Businessmen gherao Labour Minister

Bhairahawa, September 13 :

Industrialists and businessmen of Bhairahawa, who are on strike demanding an end to the syndicate system, gheraoed Labour and Transport Management Minister Ramesh Lekhak today for one-and-a-half hours.

The Siddharthanagar Chambers of Commerce Union announced an agitation as the truck entrepreneurs are carrying on with the syndicate system even though a meeting of representatives of the Labour and Transport Management Ministry, truck entrepreneurs and representatives of the Chambers of Commerce on June 12 had decided to end the system. Lekhak was in Butwal to inaugurate the national convention of transport entrepreneurs yesterday. He was gheraoed in course of returning to Kathmandu today.

The agitators shouted slogans and also staged a sit-in in front of Hotel Pawan International where the minister had been putting up.

They let Lekhak go after he promised to make public the Ministry’s decision by Friday after discussing with the concerned authorities in Kathmandu.

Saying that the syndicate system had affected business, Krishna Prasad Sharma, chairman of the Siddharthanagar Chambers of Commerce, warned of blocking import-export in the Bhairahawa customs if the government failed to heed their demand.