India Dow unit asked to halt plant construction

According to Reuters, an Indian unit of Dow Chemical Company has been asked to stop construction work on a research center in western India, after protests by locals worried about potential pollution. Work has been stopped for a month while a state government-appointed panel reviews the pollution concerns. Last year Dow said it would spend $100 million for the global research and development center near Pune in Maharashtra, which was to be operational in 2008. In July, local villagers and activists attacked the construction site, setting an office and vehicles on fire. For many Indians, Dow is synonymous with the 1984 industrial accident at Bhopal in central India, when tons of toxic gas leaked from a Union Carbide pesticide plant, killing nearly 3,800 people. Dow Chemicals later took over Union Carbide.