Protests demanding to drop Dow as sponsor of London Olympics

Chennai: Stepping up pressure to drop Dow Chemicals as sponsor of the London Olympics, campaigners on Monday held protests in Chennai besides Bhopal and London carrying banners stating "200 days to drop Dow".

They challenged Sebastian Coe, Chair of London Organising Committee of the Olympic and Paralympic Games (LOCOG) and Boris Johnson, Mayor of London, that if they were confident Dow Chemical was responsibly fulfilling its duty for clean-up and decontamination of the Bhopal site, then they should travel to Bhopal and drink the water there. "Campaigners claim that Dow Chemical is not a suitable sponsor as they have a history of corporate negligence in Bhopal, where they are responsible for clean-up of the site on which the industrial disaster took place," a release from International Campaign for Justice in Bhopal said. The survivors of the Bhopal Disaster and the children have been pitched in a battle against London Olympics Organising Committee over the last six months after the International Olympic Committee (IOC) decided to partner with Union Carbide`s parent company The Dow Chemical Company for the London Olympics 2012, the 2014 Olympic and Paralympic Winter Games, the 2016 Rio Olympics and the 2020 Olympics. In 1984, a gas leak at the Union Carbide plant in Bhopal resulted in the death of around 3000 persons and permanent disability of many. PTI