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Today's topics:

* Dow in Pune!, We must resist! - 1 messages, 1 author
 
http://groups.google.com/group/BM_discussion/browse_thread/thread/a5f4fe6a901a1511?hl=en

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TOPIC: Dow in Pune!, We must resist!
http://groups.google.com/group/BM_discussion/browse_thread/thread/a5f4fe6a901a1511?hl=en
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== 1 of 1 ==
Date: Wed, Nov 21 2007 10:42 pm 
From: "Abhijit K"  


Hi all,
As you must be knowing,  DOW CHEMICALS, the parent company of UNION CARBIDE
(the company responsible for Bhopal gas massacre) is back in India... and
they are going to setup a plant near pune.

it goes without saying, that WE MUST RESIST.  We are definitely going to
resist it here in Pune, through all possible means, and we have started
planning for the same.

I appeal to all BM-ites, anywhere, to protest in whatever forms possible.

- abhijit

---------- Forwarded message ----------
From: Shalini Sharma <shalini-9geRo0GdX4lFkAh08a1FFZcPDiHTxzko@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>
Date: Nov 22, 2007 11:42 AM
Subject: [YSC] India's betryal of Bhopal-Scotsman
To: 
sfbupdates.india-3+4lAyCyj6DezusRgbny/IAey6BUdJ7nQH7oEaQurus@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

  *http://news.scotsman.com/international.cfm?id=1835382007 * *India's
betrayal of Bhopal*

PAMELA TIMMS AND PRABAL KR DAS IN DEHLI

CAMPAIGNERS last night accused the Indian government of betrayal as it
prepared to welcome the company behind the Bhopal chemical disaster back to
the country.

In the early hours of 3 December, 1984, 5,000 people died when a leak at
Union Carbide's pesticide plant caused a 40-tonne cloud of toxic gas to
descend on the city. It is claimed 20,000 others have since died as a result
of continuing pollution from the plant.

Activists say there is a new death every day linked to the disaster and
that, for 23 years, Union Carbide and its parent company, Dow Chemical, have
failed to take responsibility for cleaning up.

In 2004, the Indian government brought a court case, demanding Dow pay £10.5
million to clean up the 8,000 tonnes of toxic waste still in the factory and
surrounding area.

But victims' groups have obtained documents from the office of the prime
minister, Manmohan Singh, which they claim show that senior ministers are
advocating an out-of-court settlement with Dow that would allow the company
to walk away from its responsibilities in Bhopal

in return for a proposed £500 million investment in India.

The government has signed an agreement with Dow, allowing the firm to
establish new research and development bases in Pune, Chennai and Mumbai.

Dow has been waging a ferocious lobbying war against the victims' groups,
recruiting some of India's most influential tycoons, including Ratan Tata,
head of the Tata conglomerate, to lobby ministers on its behalf. Earlier
this year, Mr Tata wrote to the government, proposing that a "remediation
fund" be established to clean up the site, in order to relieve Dow of its
liabilities and allow the company to invest in India.

Rachna Dhingra, of the Bhopal Group for Information and Action, said: "In 23
years since the disaster in Bhopal, the government has learned nothing. For
23 years, they have betrayed the people of Bhopal. They are bowing to Dow in
the interest of commercial investment in India."

Mr Dhingra believes that Dow should not be allowed to do business in India
until it cleans up the toxic waste in and around the factory, which,

he says, has left local residents suffering from liver and kidney diseases
and nervous system disorders.

Studies show the rates of cancer and other diseases have risen dramatically
in the area since the disaster.

Mr Dhingra went on: "25,000 people in the Bhopal area continue to this day
to drink contaminated water. They suffer all sorts of serious medical
conditions, including respiratory diseases, cancer, blindness and babies
born with congenital birth defects.

"[Dow] have to pay compensation to the people who continue to live with the
effects of the disaster. It's simple: no justice, no business."

The victims' campaign was given a boost this year when Indra Sinha's novel
Animal's People, which tells of a young man horribly maimed by the disaster,
was shortlisted for the Booker prize. The Edinburgh-based author Meaghan
Delahunt is also due to publish a novel set in Bhopal.
*FIRM BELIEVES FINANCIAL RESPONSIBILITY FULFILLED*

DOW Chemical has consistently maintained that it accepts no responsibility
for the 1984 disaster. Dow purchased Union Carbide in 2001 for $10.3 billion
in stock and debt.

Dow has publicly stated several times that earlier compensation payments by
Union Carbide to the families of those who died on the night have already
fulfilled Dow's financial responsibility for the disaster. In reality very
little of the money Union Carbide agreed to pay in the immediate aftermath
of the disaster found its way to the victims' families.

Union Carbide paid on average $500 to the families, but campaigners complain
this amount barely covered the immediate costs to the relatives, like
funerals.

Campaigners see in Dow's return a government's willingness to forget the
plight of its own people when tempted by the prospect of major investment.
Speaking to The Scotsman, Greenpeace's executive director in India, Ananth
Padmanabhan, said: "It is immoral, unethical and shameful that the
government of India has favoured foreign direct investment over justice. It
is shocking that the government is actually willing to scuttle existing
legal cases to facilitate Dow's entry into India." He expressed his
confidence that public opinion and the "indomitable will" of the Bhopal
victims will succeed in making a difference.
*People and the environment will face new threats*

PRABUL KR DAS, Assam Tribune staff reporter on placement with The Scotsman,
was a communications adviser for Greenpeace during its campaign for victims
of Bhopal

IN THE race to rapid economic gains, India could well be entering its most
dangerous phase of environmental degradation and decay. Significant
instances like the Bhopal gas disaster of 1984 make world headlines, but
there are similar events in smaller scale happening every day across India;
the more remote the place, the more dangerous the situation. Bhopal was the
wake-up call for the Indian government, but it did precious little to put
pressure on Union Carbide and later Dow Chemical to compensate the victims
and to clean up the place.

Years later, the government is now keen to invite Dow Chemical to operate in
India. Among the journalists who have spent time with the victims of Bhopal,
it appears to me as a travesty of justice. But such incidents of the
government favouring industry and trade over human and environmental
concerns are actually growing more common.

In different parts of the country, the industrial juggernaut is making its
presence felt more than ever. In the state of West Bengal, a place called
Singur witnessed ugly incidents after land was requisitioned from farmers
for a car factory. A large number of people lost their traditional means of
livelihood. In my state of Assam, inside the famous Kaziranga National Park,
which is also a world heritage site, the state government allowed a stone
quarry to operate. It raised a huge hue and cry, and along with fellow
scribes I produced reports featuring maps and co-ordinates. For a few days
the machines stopped ... only to start again.

After reporting from around India, I think the interests of human beings and
the natural environment are deeply threatened. The smallest of elites have
derived benefits while the vulnerable and the marginalised have remained
voiceless.

One might be compelled to call it the rape of the conscience or of common
sense, depending how one looks at it.





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www.studentsforbhopal.org



-- 
Abhijit Minakshi
About my name: www.geocities.com/abhijit1303/aboutname.txt
 



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