The Hindu : National : Gurgaon bandh peaceful

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Friday, Jul 29, 2005

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National

Gurgaon bandh peaceful

Prashant Pandey

George Fernandes, Gurudas Dasgupta visit the Civil Hospital

GURGAON: The bandh called by labour organisations to denounce police atrocities against workers of Honda Motorcycle and Scooters India Pvt. Limited (HMSI) passed peacefully on Thursday. Most business establishments, shopping malls and schools remained open.

A Gurgaon-based trade union took out a rally at Rajiv Chowk here and tried to force shopkeepers to down their shutters. However, policemen in riot-gear, who were present in strength, ensured that the shops remained opened.

The convenor of the National Democratic Alliance and former Defence Minister, George Fernandes, and the senior Left leader, Gurudas Dasgupta, visited the Civil Hospital and met the injured workers again.

Talking to the media persons later, Mr. Dasgupta said multi-national companies were inflicting atrocities on the workers and a nation-wide protest would soon be launched against them.

Mr. Fernandes had written to Vice-President Bhairon Singh Shekhawat seeking his intervention to ensure that the workers got justice.

He said that after inflicting atrocities on the workers on Monday, the administration had not cared to even provide basic relief. This was in gross violation of the Supreme Court guidelines.

The Mini-Secretariat, where the workers were beaten up by the police on July 25, saw little activity on Thursday with the Bar Council, Gurgaon, having declared a strike and many of the district administration officials busy with law and order duties.

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