Gurgaon Honda workers, police clash: 500 injured
by Ashok Dixit

     Gurgaon: About 500 persons, including 55 police personnel and 445 striking workers of the Manesar-based Honda Motorcycle and Scooter India plant were reportedly injured in a violent clash in Gurgaon, Haryana, about 40 km outside Indian capital Delhi on Monday. Initial reports revealed that about 2500 employees of the Honda plant located in the heart of the industrial model township (IMT), who have been on strike since June 27 because of a labour- related dispute over wages with the management, gathered at Kamla Nehru Park on Monday afternoon. Union leaders indulged in provocative speeches, following which the workers marched through the town and created an atmosphere of mayhem, damaging shops, vehicles and vendor trolleys enroute to the city's mini collectorate. On the way, they violently attacked senior police officers, including a Deputy Commissioner of Police and several police constables.They also set the car of the sub-divisional magistrate ablaze. "The striking employees entered the premises of the mini- secretariat with an intention to damage government property so that their demands would be highlighted," said S.K.Joshi, Deputy Public Relations Officer of Gurgaon District. The attack on the policemen resulted in a retaliatory and indiscriminate baton charge on hundreds of Honda workers in which several of them were badly bruised. "The striking workers had come with an intention to set the Honda showroom on the Delhi Jaipur Highway on fire," said Joshi, adding that the injured have been admitted to hospital for treatment.

      It has been over a month since production work at the Honda plant has been affected adversely because of the labour unrest. Due to the poor production output, the sales of Honda's best selling bike, the 150cc Unicorn, has dropped. The plant is presently being managed by a work force of about 800 employees or 38.6 percent of the total work force currently pegged at 1911. The agitating workers are demanding higher wages, saying the company's profits should be passed on to the workforce as well. The profitable HMSI, a wholly-owned subsidiary of Japan's two- wheeler major Honda Motor Co., has scooters as its mainstay in India and is credited with reviving the sagging sales of the scooter market. The strike, due to which the company has suffered losses to the tune of Rs 100 crore (21.5 million dollars), has seen production levels going down drastically. Against the peak production levels of 2,000 scooters per day, there had been a total shutdown a few days ago. They are now producing 750 motorcycles every day. The company employs about 3,500 people in India, which includes about 2,500 'Line Associates', almost all of whom are currently up in arms against the management. Earlier this month Gurgaon Deputy Commissioner Sudhir Rajpal was quoted by mediapersons as saying that police had to be deployed at the factory after the situation appeared to be worsening. Commenting on the situation, a company official said trouble started after some workers began "indiscipline and insubordination" after being "misled by some outside forces with vested interests." The official said the agitating employees then started "misleading" others and "through their campaign of false promises and unwarranted pressure tactics", caused loss in production. Refusing to re-induct suspended workers pending an inquiry, the management has asked others who have joined them to return to work after signing an undertaking that they would "maintain the discipline of the company and ensure normal production at all times." However, the agitating workers have refused to sign and said they will only return to work if the suspended employees are also re- inducted. Heated arguments and threats of physical violence forced the company to call the police in late last week.

Mumbai's dance bars shut down  (Go To Top)

     Mumbai: Dance bars in Maharashtra have begun downing their shutters in the wake of the passing of bill to this effect in the Maharashtra State Assembly last week. The move is likely to cause immense hardship for both dance bar owners and employees who face an uncertain future. For dancers like Mala and many like her, the view of the state government is that these people are corrupt and breed crime and prostitution in India's financial and entertainment capital, but if you hear her side of the story, then it is the beginning of a disaster. "I am uneducated and won't get any other job. We depend on this and five stomachs depend on it. Give us some other job," Mala, a mother of five, said on Sunday (July 24).

      The move by the Maharashtra government to ban 1,300 bars statewide will throw 75,000 unskilled and otherwise unemployable women like Mala out of work. The girls -- they are forced out of the business as they cross 30 years of age -- take home 70 percent of the tips and the bar owners 30 percent. A further 75,000 waiters, barmen, cooks and cleaners are expected to lose their jobs after the ban. But the dancers and their backers say the bars are the only way the women, many of them single mothers, can earn a living. The ban will force thousands into prostitution in the city's slums, where many of their mothers actually started out, they argue. "If the government gives us employment it is OK. Does the government want us to get into bad ways? I just can't understand the ways of the government," said Manik Pal, a bar tender thrown out of job. Officials from related liquor industry said they would try legal redress against the closure of dance bars. "We plan to move the courts as there is no other way out. We have talked to our counsel. We pay so much taxes and help the government but now there is no other way," Balkrishna Shetty, Vice President, Maharashtra Liquor Association, said. The dance bars themselves are hardly X-rated. The women wear saris, showing no more than their midriffs. The average music video or Bollywood "item number" -- raunchy song and dance routines -- shows more flesh. Customers garland the girls with cash, or throw money -- the favourite way is to hold a wad of notes between thumb and finger and shower them over the dancer. In the up market bars, a rich customer spends thousands of dollars on a favoured dancer in one night, showering 100 or 500- rupee notes (2.30 dollars-11.50 dollars).

Lok Sabha, Rajya Sabha adjourned (Go To Top)

     New Delhi: Both Houses of Paliament - the Lok Sabha and the Rajya Sabha - were adjourned for the day on Monday after rich tributes were paid to the late cine star-turned- politician Sunil Dutt and other prominent personalities, who have died during the inter-session period. Speaker Somnath Chatterjee in the Lok Sabha and Vice President and Chairman Bhairon Singh Shekawat in the Rajya Sabha paid glowing tribute to Sunil Dutt, who was a sitting member of the Lok Sabha and Minister of State for Sports and Youth Affairs in the Union Council of Ministers. His secular credentials and untiring service to the poor and the cause of the youth were recalled by both presiding officers. They also recalled the services rendered by the late Rafiq Zakaria, Sunder Singh Bhandari, Biblap Das Gupta and other prominent leaders, who had passed away recently. Members in both houses stood in silence for a while as a mark of respect to the departed souls.

Earthquake rocks Andaman Nicobar islands again (Go To Top)

     New Delhi: The Andaman and Nicobar Islands were rocked again by an earthquake on Monday morning, creating panic among the people. Tremors measuring 5.2 on the Open-ended Richter Scale shook the Nicobar Islands at 2.17 a.m. ( Indian Standard Time ). No loss of life or damage to property, was however, reported. According to the Indian Metereological Department, theepicentre of the tremors was located at a depth of 33 kilometers south of the islands. Monday's tremors appeared to be a follow-up of the aftershocks of Sunday night's major earthquake, which measured 7.2 on the Richter Scale. The tremblor on Sunday sent shock waves as far away as Chennai, Colombo and Aceh province in Indonesia. In New Delhi, the Disaster Mangement Control room was activated immediately for any possible emergency operations. Authorities in Thailand also issued a warning to residents living on the southwestern coastal areas, where the December 26 Tsunami had caused widespread devastation, especially in the tourist resort town of Phuket. But the warning was withdrawn within 90-minutes as there was no sign of an eminent Tsunami on the horizon. Monday's tremor was 11th earthquake measuring more that five on the Richter Scale this month in theAndamans, Sumatra and Myanmar regions and fourth in the Andaman andn Nicobar Islands.

117 quit Maoist movement to join mainstream (Go To Top)

     Bastar: In a major success for civilian authorities in countering the Naxal menace, at least 117 leftist rebel supporters today quit the Maoist movement and have joined the mainstream. The leftist rebels, known as Naxals in local parlance, are fighting for peasants' rights and radical redistribution of land. The villagers were enrolled as supporters by the Naxals to popularise their movement in the tribal dominated Bastar district. Bastar is one of the worst hit rebel dominated area where they repeatedly blow up railway tracks and vandalise rich houses. Last week, five villagers were kidnapped and later killed for undertaking development programmes in the backward district with the help of provincial authorities. "I was not involved in this. They forced me into it, so I had to attend their meetings. I was fed up of them," said Kanhiya, a surrendered activist. Birendra Toppo, Commandant of paramilitary Central Reserve Police Force (CRPF) said they were stepping up patrolling to tackle the naxal movement. "We have been provided with cycles so that we can patrol those areas where vehicles cannot move. Most of the roads which were blocked by them have been opened," he said. Besides Chhattisgarh, neighbouring Madhya Pradesh, Jharkhand, Bihar and Andhra Pradesh are affected by the Naxalite movement, represented mainly by the People's War Group (PWG) and the Maoist Communist Centre (MCC).

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