Several hundred bidi workers have protested against a proposal for tax-hike on the bidi industry by some NGOs from the next fiscal year.
They held a human chain protest in front of the National Press Club on Wednesday.
The demonstrators also expressed deep concerns about what they called "ill-motivated acts of the paid NGOs" who "played a key role to hike tax" on the home-grown bidi industry amid the coronavirus crisis.
Protesting workers claimed that the NGOs "paid by multinational cigarette companies" are trying to destroy the domestic bidi industry that is the prime source of livelihood of several hundred thousand people.
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