Force Dow Chemical-Union Carbide to Quit India: Fax Action

Save Pune from Dow -
Send a FAX to the Chief Minister of Maharashtra

US chemical multinational Dow Chemical, owner of Union Carbide, thinks that it is above the law. That, in India it can poison entire communities, causing sickness, cancers, deaths and birth-defects: that it can lie, cheat, bribe and buy off officials and twist politicians round its little finger; that it can terrorize ordinary citizens by calling on its friends in power to visit their homes with brutality.

We have seen the state act this way in Bhopal and while wooing Dow in Nandigram. Now helped by the Chief Minister of Maharashtra, and backed by aggressive sections of the Maharashtra police, Dow is trying to build a chemical experimentation facility in Shinde Vasuli village, near Pune.

In January, villagers dug up the road and stopped construction. In July, when the company attempted to restart construction with police protection, Warkari devotees of a local saint entered and demolished parts of the construction site. Though a Warkari leader claimed all responsibility, the police cracked down on the innocent people of Shinde Vasuli in a naked effort to intimidate the villagers into submission.

With the villagers and the Warkaris determined to ward Dow off, and the Government of Maharashtra bent on helping Dow Chemical, the stage is set for violence: the Warkari sect and the villagers are committed to non-violence. Register your protest against the unconditional support of the Government for Dow Chemical and Union Carbide in Pune, and against police high-handedness in Shinde-Vasuli NOW by sending a free fax to the Chief Minister of Maharashtra, below.

So far 425 faxes have been sent - Thank you!

The Honourable Chief Minister, Government of Maharashtra, Mumbai

RE: Stop police oppression of villagers and Warkaris opposing Dow

Sir,
I call upon you to order the Maharashtra police to stop intimidating the
villagers opposed to Dow Chemical's facility in Shinde Vasuli near Pune.
Further, I ask that you respect the rights of the villagers to refuse
development of a polluting Dow plant in their locality. I also seek your
intervention in dropping serious charges filed against the many Warkaris and
villagers falsely indicted by the state's authorities.  

The villagers' nine month long opposition to construction of Dow Chemical's R &
D Centre is based upon genuine concerns regarding the environmental and health
impact of the hazardous activities proposed there. It is widely known that Dow
Chemical started construction of the facility after encroaching upon 100 acres
of village pastureland, without key permissions from concerned government
departments. Only after the protest by the villagers did the company
admit that it will be manufacturing at least 20 different hazardous chemicals
and using many more at the centre. 

The proposed site is also next to the Bhamchandragarh hill where Saint Tukaram
composed his "abhangs" that are sung all over Maharashtra. Local villagers fear
that Dow Chemical's toxic effluents will poison the sacred river Indrayani.

The opposition of the villagers and their spiritual leaders is also based on
the notorious record of Dow Chemical, owner of Union Carbide, which is
responsible for the deaths of over 23,000 people in Bhopal. As the owner of
Carbide, it is Dow's responsibility to clean up the poisoned soil and ground
water in and around the abandoned pesticide factory in Bhopal. More than 25,000
residents of surrounding communities are forced to use drinking water laced with
deadly chemicals.

I would like to bring to your notice that the excessive use of police force
against local villagers by your government has become widely known; many people
now believe the Maharashtra state is colluding with a criminal corporation, one
that violates the law with impunity. Your reported meeting with Dow Chemical's
CEO Andrew Liveris in the USA has augmented these beliefs. 

I hope and trust you will issue necessary directions to ensure that the people
of Shinde, and other villages and their spiritual leaders, are no longer
victimized by your government's police.

Sincerely,

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