Ludhiana, November 10 A meeting of Ludhiana unit of the Punjab Pradesh Beopar Mandal (PPBM) was held here today. The meeting was attended by Mayor Balkar Singh Sandhu, besides others. The traders' leaders while addressing the meeting apprised the city Mayor of problems being faced by them and sought his immediate intervention to find the solution. The Mayor heard the grievances of the traders and assured them to resolve these as early as possible. Addressing the traders, he asked them to extend their complete support and pay maximum taxes to the Municipal Corporation (MC) so that development works could be carried out smoothly. He said all-out efforts were being made to check pilferage at all levels in the corporation, adding pilferage worth Rs 25 lakh to Rs 30 lakh had been stopped as far as the use of diesel was concerned. Further, the Mayor said that he had made every effort to get the Jagraon Bridge functioning possibly by March or April next year. He said efforts were to be made to shift about 150 jhuggi dwellers from the surroundings of this overbridge. Regarding condition of roads, he assured the traders that the condition of the city roads would be improved soon. Regarding Buddha Nullah, he said the Punjab Chief Minister was taking keen interest in getting this nullah pollution-free. He said a project worth about Rs1,500 crore was being prepared and hoped it would be implemented in the time to come with the cooperation of the Rajasthan Government. To a request made by the traders, the Mayor assured that he would get a meeting arranged between the leaders of the Punjab Pradesh Beopar Mandal and the Punjab Chief Minister so that pending issues of the traders could be resolved at the earliest. He asked the traders to support the Municipal Corporation officials to resolve the issue of encroachments outside the shops. Earlier, addressing the meeting, the mandal leaders, including state secretary Mohinder Aggarwal and state general secretary Sunil Mehra highlighted the problems being faced by the traders. Aggarwal spoke about the problems being faced by traders in filing their property tax. He said there was an urgent need to streamline things. He said in many cases, UID number had not been linked to the properties resulting to which traders were unable to file their property tax. They also expressed their concern over the increasing trend of online retailing. They sought intervention of the government to safeguard the interest of the traditional retailers across the country. They also expressed their concern over amendments in the Labour Law. They termed the amendments as "dangerous". Sunil Mehra announced that I-cards would be issued to the mandal members in the future.

Stay updated with all the Latest Ludhiana headlines here. For more exclusive & live news updates from all around India, stay connected with NYOOOZ.