London: Owners of Indian restaurants staged a protest outside the Scottish Parliament in Edinburgh against recent changes to immigration rules that have adversely affected the Indian food industry in the United Kingdom. The new rules prevent chefs from being recruited from the Indian sub-continent, threatening the existence of thousands of Indian restaurants across the UK. Many have closed down due to shortage of chefs. After the demonstration yesterday, the protesters met Alex Salmond, the First Minister, who described the issue as "really serious".

Salmond promised the Indian restaurant owners that he would continue to draw the UK government s attention to the matter. "If people can t get the skilled staff then they can t operate their restaurants, and if they can t operate their restaurants then that s damaging for the economy and the social life of Scotland. It s something we feel very strongly about. "Ideally, the new system shouldn t have discriminated and prevented people coming in with key skills.

I hope there s sympathy for this. I can t believe the Government in London intended this to happen," Salmond said. "It s a matter of trying to sort out this unintended consequence because there s a lot more folk than me would be extremely disappointed if the restaurant trade and the curry industry in Scotland went into a downturn as a result of an unthinking application of new rules from London," he said.

Source : PTI