By IANS
New Delhi : Over 1,000 alumni of the seven Indian Institutes of Technology (IITs) Wednesday urged their alma maters not to allow Dow Chemical Company to recruit students from the prestigious engineering institutes as the multinational now bears the responsibility for the 1984 Bhopal gas leak tragedy.
The alumni and faculty members of various IITs have signed a petition addressed to the directors of all IITs urging them to bar Dow Chemical – which has taken over Union Carbide – from any partnership or role in the institutes.
In what is possibly the worst industrial disaster in history, the leak of over 40 tonnes of the hazardous MIC gas from the Union Carbide’s pesticide plant in Bhopal killed an estimated 20,000 people and maimed several thousands in December 1984.
Family members of the victims are still fighting for clean water, clearance of toxic wastes and proper health facilities, besides “adequate” financial compensation.
Two eminent IIT alumni, noted columnist Praful Bidwai and Magsaysay Award winner Arvind Kejriwal, released the petition in the capital.
“Dow has acquired Union Carbide – not just its assets, but its liabilities as well,” said Bidwai.
“The company has to clean up the toxic wastes in Bhopal, compensate the victims of contamination, and force its subsidiary to face criminal trial in the Bhopal court. Otherwise, it will be met with hostility wherever it goes in India,” he said.
Victims and their families have dug out information using the Right to Information (RTI) Act that Dow had made exploratory visits to the IIT-Delhi and the IIT-Mumbai to recruit students.
“In the absence of any screening mechanism in the IITs, all kinds of companies including those with horrendous environmental and human rights track records or those found to be corrupt and unethical like Dow enter the campuses easily,” said Kejriwal, a leading RTI activist.
“This situation has to be remedied because technology without ethics is precisely what led to the world’s worst industrial disaster,” he added.
Among others who have signed the petition are noted social activist Dunu Roy, Magsaysay winner Sandeep Pandey and IIT-Delhi professor Dinesh Mohan.