About 1,000 alumni of the Indian Institutes of Technology (IITs) have sent a petition to the directors of the seven premier government-owned engineering institutes urging them to ban Dow Chemicals, which acquired the Union Carbide plant in 2001, from any partnership or role in the premier institutes of the country. This comes soon after the company was forced to cancel pre-placement talks, due in the last week of October, in IIT Madras and Bombay.
The Campaign estimates that 22,000 people are already dead and says yet Dow wants to deny all responsibility and wants the Indian government to pay millions of dollars for the clean of its mess in Bhopal.
Activists burnt the US flag and logos of Union Carbide and Dow Chemicals - as they have done nothing to end the sufferings of the victims for the last 32 years.
Dow Chemical Co hoped an Olympic sponsorship would boost its global cache, but the company's link to a gas leak tragedy 28 years ago threatens to curb some of the benefits from the $100 million advertising deal.
Did the Indian government guarantee Dow Chemicals, the parent company of Union Carbide, that it will not be held liable for the Bhopal gas tragedy?
United States-based Union Carbide Corporation has filed a petition in the Supreme Court demanding early hearing on the government's curative petition in the Bhopal gas disaster case, saying delays are being used to besmirch the reputation of its parent firm, Dow Chemicals. UCC, a wholly-owned subsidiary of The Dow Chemical Company, in the petition sought a fixed timetable for hearing and early disposal of the curative petition filed by the Union government in December 2010.
Madhya Pradesh chief minister Shivraj Singh Chauhan urged the government to boycott next year's London Olympics because of the event's sponsorship deal with Dow Chemical company, according to local media reports.
A rally marking the 41st anniversary of the Bhopal gas tragedy was disrupted by a controversy over an effigy allegedly depicting an RSS 'sevak,' leading to an FIR against organizers.
The Madhya Pradesh high court in Jabalpur on Monday directed the state government to take steps within six weeks for disposal of Bhopal-based Union Carbide's 337 tonnes of hazardous waste as per safety protocols, while restraining the media from publishing any fake news on the same.
A petition has been filed in the National Green Tribunal's Bhopal bench, seeking an assurance from the Madhya Pradesh government that the Union Carbide waste disposal in Pithampur won't harm people in nearby areas. The petition, filed by a Jabalpur-based social organisation, has urged the NGT to direct the state's chief secretary to declare on oath about the safety of people in Pithampur in Dhar district where the waste has been transported for disposal. The petition also seeks direction to the MP government to publish a specific report regarding the disposal of this waste to allay public concerns.
The two issues that remain are whether Dow inherited Union Carbide's liabilities and why the government never cleaned up Bhopal after settling with Carbide
The Dow Chemical Company, which owns Union Carbide Corporation, on Tuesday said the Indian government had "fully released" UCC and its subsidiary in Bhopal from any civil liability for the 1984 gas tragedy.
The International Olympic Committee (IOC) has appreciated Indian Olympic Association's (IOA) concern for the victims of 1984 Bhopal Tragedy but maintained that Dow Chemicals had no ownership stakes in Union Carbide till 2000.
An internal note obtained by activists from the Prime Minister's Office and dated February 2 this year says that the Ministry of Law believes that 'irrespective of the manner in which Union Carbide has merged or has been acquired by Dow, if there is any legal liability it would have to be borne by Dow Chemicals.' The note also puts a question mark on the prospects for future investments by US-based Dow in India.
"If I go there at all, I would be addressing the (US-India) CEOs meeting and also have some bilateral meetings with Treasury officials. I do not know of any other meeting. I do not know from where these things come," he told media persons in Ahmedabad when asked about reports about his plans to meet with Dow Chemicals CEO Andrew Liveris in the US.
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.
India's premier technical institute, IIT-Bombay's golden jubilee celebrations -- to be held in New York from July 18 to 20 this year -- have stirred a hornet's nest. The reason is that Dow Chemicals is one of the main sponsors.
The Supreme Court on Monday issued notices to the Union Carbide Corporation, Dow Chemicals and others on a Centre's plea seeking enhancement of compensation to the victims of 1984 Bhopal gas tragedy from Rs 750 crore to Rs 7,700 crore.
An Indian-origin Opposition Labour Party MP secured a debate in Westminster Hall of the UK parliament to call for justice for the victims of Bhopal gas tragedy, which will mark its 38th anniversary early next month.
A day ahead of the crucial General Body Meeting of the Indian Olympic Association on the controversial Dow Chemicals issue, its acting president VK Malhotra, on Wednesday, demanded the company to be removed from being one of the sponsors of the 2012 London Games.
Terming court's decision to summon Dow Chemicals in the Bhopal gas tragedy case as an "important step", Amnesty International today demanded that the company must acknowledge its responsibility towards the survivors of the 1984 industrial disaster.
There is little hope of any justice in the Bhopal gas leak case. If the tragedy and the shock its finale has created awaken us to work on newer laws on corporate responsibility and accountability, it would be a gain, writes Kandaswami Subramanian.
As the year-long countdown begins for the 2012 London Olympics, organisers have been hit by the first major controversy around the mega sporting event, with activists of Bhopal gas disaster planning protests against Dow Chemical Company, one of the official sponsors.
The work to remove 377 metric tonnes of hazardous waste from the now-defunct Union Carbide factory in Bhopal has begun. The waste will be transported to an incineration site in Pithampur near Indore, around 250 km from Bhopal. The move comes after the Madhya Pradesh High Court ordered the authorities to clear the site, 40 years after the deadly gas leak that killed thousands and left hundreds of thousands with health problems.
Amnesty International has called on the Dow Chemical Company to appear before a Bhopal court this week to explain why its subsidiary Union Carbide Company repeatedly ignored summons in the 1984 gas leak case.
The Union Carbide Corporation gave a compensation of $470 million (Rs 715 crore) after the toxic gas leak from the Union Carbide factory on the intervening night of December 2-3, 1984, killed over 3,000 people and affected 1.02 lakh others.
According to the sources in the government, in a major U-turn, the Union law ministry has submitted a note to the Group of Ministers headed by Home Minister P Chidambaram on the Bhopal gas tragedy, where it has, reportedly, recommended that the government of India should undertake the cleanup operation of the site of Union Carbide.
Two women survivors of the 1984 Bhopal gas tragedy will go on an indefinite hunger strike here from May 1 to press Dow Chemicals, the present owner of Union Carbide, to own up responsibility for the tragedy and assume the liabilities.
The top court said that a sum of Rs 50 crore lying with the RBI for the victims shall be utilised by the Union of India to satisfy pending claims of victims.
Under tremendous pressure from India to drop Dow Chemicals as London Olympics sponsors, the Games' organising committee chief Sebastian Coe said they are ready to meet the activists protesting against the company because of the 1984 Bhopal gas tragedy.
Lapierre welcomed the beginning of distribution of fresh compensation of Rs 1567 crore to the victims.
Dubbing as "paltry" the relief announced recently for Bhopal disaster victims, the opposition on Wednesday demanded a substantial increase in it and asked the government to become a party to a petition filed in a US court to extract compensation from American firm Dow Chemicals.
The Union cabinet will discuss the report of the Group of Ministers on the 1984 Bhopal gas tragedy on Thursday.
The Supreme Court on Tuesday asked the Centre to clarify its stand on whether it wants to go ahead with its curative petition seeking Rs 7,844 crore as additional funds from successor firms of the US-based Union Carbide Corporation (UCC) for giving compensation to victims of the 1984 Bhopal gas tragedy.
The Supreme Court on Monday pulled up the Centre for not being serious on disposal of toxic waste lying in the defunct Union Carbide India Ltd plant, now represented by DOW Chemical Company, in Bhopal for the last 28 years and asked it to take a final decision on it soon.
NGOs working for the rights of the survivors of the 1984 Bhopal gas disaster on Wednesday alleged that various governments in Madhya Pradesh and at the Centre have failed to bring the culprits of the world's biggest industrial tragedy to justice even after 37 years.
Families of the deceased and people who bore the brunt of the industrial disaster are now signing a petition, to be sent to the Supreme Court, requesting it to start hearing a curative petition of the government filed in December 2010 for more compensation.
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