India's capital braces for trouble as workers strike

November 27, 2000
Web posted at: 12:52 PM HKT (0452 GMT)

NEW DELHI, India (Reuters) -- Police braced for potential trouble in the Indian capital on Monday as factory owners and unions launched a one-day strike to protest against plans for stiff pollution controls, authorities said.

Last week three people died and 75 were injured when industrial workers went on a two-day rampage, torching public buildings and stoning police, to demonstrate against the city's move to close pollution-causing factories.

Factory workers and owners say that they are fighting for their right to earn a livelihood.

VIDEO CNN's Satinder Bindra reports on the protest Play video (QuickTime, Real or Windows Media)

A police official said paramilitary anti-riot forces had been brought into New Delhi and extra police were on duty to prevent a repeat of last week's violence.

"We are on alert and we have brought in the rapid action force," a police spokesman said.

"Fear grips Delhi on the eve of bandh," was the headline on the front page of The Hindu newspaper. "Bandh" is the common Indian word for a strike.

Schools were ordered closed and many private bus operators pulled their buses off the roads, All India Radio (AIR) said on Monday.

Police said some 2,500 paramilitary personnel had been called in to support local law enforcement. Orders were in effect in some areas to prevent large gatherings.

The workers and factory owners oppose a move by civic authorities to implement strict pollution controls following a Supreme Court order to seal polluting industries in residential areas and cancel their licences.

The Supreme Court rebuffed an appeal last week to allow authorities to go slow in implementing the shutdown of the factories, saying it would not be held to ransom "if hooligans take to the streets."

There are some 50,000 industrial outlets in New Delhi, which has a population of 10 million, and many spew huge clouds of smoke into what is considered one of the most polluted urban areas in the world.

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