Notwithstanding persistent claims by the multinational chemical company that it has no plans to convert the R&D center into a manufacturing unit across the 100 acres of land it has acquired through Maharashtra Industrial Development Corporation at village Shinde, the protest by locals and activists continues.
Dow India would comply with all the directives stated by the government to work outa solution to the current situation, the company said. Recently the company's research facility at Chakan was razed by a group of villagers, following which members of the Warkari sect claimed responsibility for the act, saying they would not allow the facility to come up at a place which is sacred to the followers of the 17th century Bhakti movement saint Tukaram.
Dow Chemical Company is once bitten, twice shy. Close on the heels of its US parent's move to deny liability for damages resulting from the Bhopal gas tragedy at a plant run by Union Carbide (a company it had bought), Dow India has called off a greenfield project to establish a research & development facility in Maharashtra.
The old guard is still involved in broad corporate decision-making, but quite a few new business heads have started making their mark at the group