A silver ray

After waiting for so long and talking all about the damage caused by hartals, here is a silver lining in the cloud, though only a faint one. Manorama reports that the unit of Vyapari-Vyavasayi Co-ordination Committee of Bharanikkavu, a small village near Kayamkulam has come out against these frequent hartals. The traders there have realized that, in addition to the State-wide hartals exhorted by major political parties, they are forced to close shop for even minor incidents, sometimes twice or thrice on the same issue. If not complied with, even man-handling takes place. They now suspect the hands of some anti-social elements in organizing hartals frequently and are now decided on resisting the forced closure of shops. So far so good. At least, people in a small way are realizing the menace called hartal and are showing signs of protest.
In a significant move, one Jewellery bigwig who has branches all over the world has come up with the declaration that he will not open another branch in Kerala. In his opinion, it is impossible to run business in Kerala because of the tax norms and frequent hartals. He plans to shift his head office to Bangalore shortly and none of the thirty new branches to be begun will be in Kerala.
Some bad news, isn't it?
No confirmation about the Smart City still!