8,000 handicapped people stage protest in Kolkata

Around 8,000 handicapped people on Monday staged a law violation programme in the city to press for a four-point charter of demands including bringing all such people under the below poverty line list.

The other demands included punishment of culprits carrying out atrocities on the disabled and the passing of a state law benefiting the disabled population.

The agitators broke six-seven police barricades as part of the protest, with police trying to bring the situation under control.

"Some arrests were made but those people were released thereafter," said Kanti Ganguly, general secretary of the West Bengal Pratibandhi Sammilani (WBPS) which staged the demonstration.

Ganguly, who is also a former minister and current state committee member of the Communist Party of India-Marxist, called for "immediate withdrawal" of an alleged "false chargesheet" against the association's officials for holding a demonstration on the same day last year.

"We demand all physically challenged people to be placed under the Below Poverty Line (BPL) scheme and the state should pass a special law for the disabled populace," Ganguly said.

A year ago police baton charged a protest march organised by the association protesting against an incident of alleged police inaction involving the murder of a disabled person and arrested some of the participants.

Thereafter, police chargesheeted its senior officials which the association is vehemently protesting against.