THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: The state government has convened an all-party meeting here on March 14 to discuss and reach a consensus on the issue of regulating hartals.The meeting has been convened based on the assurance given by chief minister Pinarayi Vijayan in the last session of the state assembly.Opposition leader Ramesh Chennithala had urged the government to bring in an ordinance to regulate hartals in the state. To this the chief minister had said that first there should be a consensus on this outside the House and a decision on a legislation would be taken after that.The chief minister had said that there should be an end to the practice of calling unnecessary hartals in the state. The state had witnessed frequent hartals after the Supreme Court verdict allowing entry of women of all ages in Sabarimala.The government had acted tough against the violence that had erupted during these hartals. It had taken steps to recover money for the damages caused in hartals from the political parties that had called them.The government had also come out with a legislation that requires those who call hartals to pay compensation for the damages caused to the private properties during hartal violence.Meanwhile, the high court had on January 7 banned calling of flash hartals and said that a seven-day notice was mandatory for declaring hartals. The court had issued this directive while hearing a petition from the Kerala Chamber of Commerce and Industry and a Thrissur-based NGO, Malayala Vedi Against Hartals.While condemning the practice of calling flash strikes, a division bench of the high court had observed that if prior notice was not given, people could approach the court against the hartal and the government should take adequate measures to deal with the situation.In their petition, the chamber alleged that Kerala witnessed 97 strikes in 2018, which affected business and the livelihood of people, leading to huge economic loss. In December, over 35 trade organizations came together against rampant strike calls by various political parties .

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