Bank workers are planning protest action this weekend in the nearby city of Lucknow and a hunger strike on September 22 if the union leader is not reinstated. The blind workers were protesting against laws allowing the DSW to round up blind beggars from the streets and force them to work as cheap labour, manufacturing rags, soap and mats under NVRC supervision. Rescuers are still searching for 15 workers. Local authorities said that the final death toll is not known and that investigators are still trying to determine the cause of the blast. Fatal accidents occur almost on a daily basis in China's dilapidated mining industry, where even minimal safety regulations are ignored by the mine operators or not enforced by government authorities.
Many mines lack adequate ventilation and safety equipment.
There were 7,423 miners killed in 1998 and 3,464 during the first nine months of 1999. Figures for the remainder of 1999 and for 2000 have not yet been made available. The marchers said there were snubbed by Premier Sani Lakatani and prevented from entering the parliament building by a cordon of police. Niue's premier has declared that the government would not give into the teachers' pay demands because it would spark similar claims by other public servants. The striking teachers had been given until the day of the march to return to work.