BJP MP Tejasvi Surya on Wednesday stated that he will request the Finance Minister, Nirmala Sitharaman to waive off the GST levied on finished Khadi products on the occasion of the 150th birth anniversary of Mahatma Gandhi.
Starting off with a spot-fix repainting, where a garbage dump corner was transformed into a neat, clean hangout zone, Surya orgsed a rally of 800 students to spread awareness of the ill effects of single-use plastics. He then inaugurated the renovated building of the Karnataka Sarvodaya Sangh in Shankarpuram, encouraging the purchase and use of khadi products.
When the Karnataka Sarvodaya Sangh requested Surya if the GST could be altogether waived off on Khadi products, the Bengaluru South MP said: "I shall request Nirmala Sitharaman, to waive off the GST levied on the finished Khadi produce. Today being the 150th Birth Anniversary of Gandhi, I will place the request before the Finance Minister right away."
Earlier, Surya addressed a gathering of 800 students at the BES College in Jayanagar, highlighting Gandhian principles that are relevant even to this day.
Speaking at the rally, Surya said: "It's only on a select few days that we undertake such Swachhata initiatives, like on Gandhi Jayanti. But there are people who promote Swachh Bharat every day like our Pourakarmikas. More than promoting ourselves for our selective Swachh campaigns, let's respect and appreciate the work done by Pourakarmikas in ensuring our streets remain clean."
"Let's also remember that even if 50,000 more Pourakarmikas work daily, we will never be able to achieve cleanliness if we don't stop dumping our trash arbitrarily. The entire Swachh Bharat Abhiyan kickstarted by Prime Minister Shri Narendra Modi is to bring about a behavioural change among our citizens. Let's work toward achieving this behavioural change and stop dumping and prevent others from dumping garbage randomly on the streets," he added.
( With inputs from ANI )