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Wednesday, Mar 29, 2006

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National

Bhopal protesters detained in Delhi

Staff Reporter

39 survivors of the gas tragedy reached the Capital after a month-long, 800-km walk from Bhopal

NEW DELHI: Over 100 protesters, comprising mostly women, demanding the rehabilitation of survivors of the 1984 Bhopal gas tragedy were detained by the police for staging a dharna outside Shastri Bhavan here on Tuesday.

The protesters refused to leave without a positive response from the Union Minister for Chemicals and Fertilizers, Ram Vilas Paswan. Around 4 p.m., the police detained them and took them to the Parliament Street police station. They were kept there till late evening. "We are contemplating legal action against them as we want to discourage the practice of such big protests in the high-security zones," said a police officer.

Two of the protestors were injured when they were forcibly removed by the police. On Monday, the protesters had organised a march from Nizamuddin Park to Jantar Mantar.

Threaten indefinite fast

They threatened to go on an indefinite fast if their demands were not met. Representatives from Delhi University and Jawaharlal Nehru University, activists of Narmada Bachao Andolan, trade union members and members of various non-Government organisations had also joined them.

The protestors have been demanding setting up of a national commission on Bhopal to oversee medical and social rehabilitation.

As many as 39 survivors of the gas tragedy had reached the Capital on Saturday after a month-long, 800-km walk from Bhopal.

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