Ahead of polls, diamond workers seek tax exemption

Surat: Ahead of the Surat Municipal Corporation elections, the Diamond Worker Union Gujarat (DWUG) demanded that diamond workers be exempted from professional tax. The union launched a campaign against the levy and sought support from parties, asking them to include this in their election manifestos.The Surat Congress committee reportedly gave a written assurance that it would abolish professional tax and help clear around 26,000 pending applications for education assistance for workers' children. Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) made a similar promise in its manifesto and through social media campaigns, saying it would scrap the "wrongly collected" professional tax if voted to power. The union said its demands were gaining traction among political parties. "There is anger among workers after nearly 26,000 education assistance applications for their children were allegedly rejected. Now Congress and AAP have announced their support to our demand," said Bhavesh Tank, vice-president, DWUG. The union also raised concerns about voter data in Surat's Varachha Road assembly constituency, which has a large population of diamond workers. "Another concern for diamond artisans is the removal of names from the voters' list in Varachha. Through an RTI, we found that 64,334 names have been removed from the list and most were diamond artisans," Tank said. DWUG said it was unclear whether the large number of deletions was due to migration caused by the prolonged slowdown in the diamond industry or other reasons. The union added that it has filed RTIs in other areas with sizable diamond worker populations and has moved first appeals and complaints before the Gujarat Information Commission after not receiving responses. With the continued slowdown in the diamond industry, the union said voter turnout among workers may remain low, but it is urging artisans to vote in large numbers. It added that many workers may only learn on polling day whether their names are on the updated voter list.
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