Over 1,500 school and college students from various parts of the United States held a demonstration near the Indian Consulate in New York to demand justice for the victims of 1984 Bhopal gas tragedy.

The protesters under the banner of Amnesty International submitted a memorandum to the consulate.

They alleged that the Indian government has 'systematically' denied the rights of the victims to health and protection from environment pollution for the past 20 years despite the Supreme Court holding that these rights are included in the right to life guaranteed under the Constitution.

"Bhopal was not only a disaster but also, and continues to be, fundamental violation of the human rights. Thousands of people in Bhopal are denied their right to health," the memorandum read.

More than 7,000 people were killed and around 150,000 injured, out of whom 15,000 have already died, the Amnesty said.

The protestors demanded that Dow Chemical Company, which has purchased Union Carbide plant from where the poison gas leaked on December 3, 1984, and the Indian government clean up the site of the deadly chemicals and ensure uncontaminated water to the people.

The memorandum demanded full reparations, restitution and compensation for the damage done to the health of the people.

International Campaign for Justice in Bhopal, Boston-based Association for India' Development, Alliance for Secular and Democratic South Asia and Environment Health joined Amnesty in the protest.

Similar memorandums, the organisers said, were also submitted to the Indian Embassy in Washington and Indian Consulates in Houston and San Francisco.

This was tenth year in succession that the demonstration was held. The demonstrators also protested outside Jamaican and Chinese consulates.

The Amnesty International brings students in buses in what is called "Get on the Bus Campaign," explains to them the issue of human rights and then they demonstrate for different causes in front of different consulates.