Gujarat bandh puts halt on IT business in the state

The Gujarat bandh called by Hardik Patel, the 23 year old Patidar community leader demanding reservation on Wednesday, put halt on the IT business in the state. The entire market remained closed as the violence took a toll of 8 lives and vandalized the public property worth more than 3000 crore. After two day long turmoil, the life has started returning to normalcy in Gujarat.

The IT business remained shut in the worst affected cities like Ahmadabad, Surat, Vadodara, Rajkot, Jamnagar and Morbi on Tuesday and Wednesday. However, the market partially opened on Thursday in some of the cities like Surat, Ahmadabad and Rajkot. The unrest in the state caused nearly 60 percent loss to the business in last three days.

Nilesh Bhatt, owner of Jamnagar based Triotronick System said, “The business is completely closed in Jamnagar and no major trading is happening in the city. However, some resellers have opened their shops today but there is no much foot fall of customers.”

Nilesh Thakkar, owner of Ahmadabad based V Supply said that the two day shut down largely affected the business. However, there were no incidents of attacks on the shops. Similarly, no incidents of vandalism were reported in Rajkot. However, the internet was completely down on Wednesday which affected the online business.

The current unrest did not affect the IT business in Surat. Apart from specific places where the curfew has been imposed, the normal routine remained unaffected. Unnat Mehta, owner of Reet Enterprises said, “All shops were opened on Wednesday except few LFRs and showrooms. Otherwise the business was happening and Surat was absolutely normal.”

Gujarat IT partners said that situation was under control and all commercial activities would also start gradually.

Eight people, including a policeman, have died in the state since Tuesday night in violence that erupted after the brief detention of Hardik Patel, who led a massive rally in Ahmedabad for reservation in government jobs and colleges for the Patels or Patidars. Eleven columns of the Army and 53 companies of paramilitary forces have been deployed in Ahmedabad and three other cities - Surat, Rajkot and Mehsana.