In Calcutta, 20 workers were injured as police, with batons swinging, attacked strikers demonstrating outside the local port authority headquarters on the first day of the walkout.

Three days earlier some 90,000 power plant workers in the state of Uttar Pradesh walked out over government plans to privatize electricity distribution and cut jobs. Government officials declared the strike illegal, detained hundreds of workers, and ordered the strikers back to work under threat of dismissal. Uttar Pradesh is one of India's largest states with a population of 165 million.

"We shall not withdraw from the strike until the government takes back its decision to reorganize the state electricity board," stated Shailendra Dubey, a spokesperson for the striking workers.

Meanwhile, more than 300,000 state government workers in the states of Jammu and Kashmir have been on strike for the past three weeks. They're demanding the payment of back wages owed to them by the government.

U.S. treasury secretary Lawrence Summers, who is organizing a visit to India by U.S. president William Clinton in March, praised the government's determination to push through "market reforms" despite workers' opposition. "I'm beginning to get a very good feeling about the Indian economy," Summers said.  
 
 
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