London, Nov 3 (ANI): The organising committee of the London Olympic Games is facing questions over why it has named the controversial Dow Chemicals company, which is responsible for Bhopal gas tragedy, as a sponsor of the 2012 stadium in London.
Dow is the 100 percent owner of Union Carbide Corporation (UCC), the company that was responsible for the 1984 gas disaster in Bhopal that killed nearly 25,000 people. It has been named as the sponsor the seven million pounds fabric curtain that will encircle the Olympic Stadium.
According to the Independent, the shadow Olympics minister, Tessa Jowell, and the chair of the Home Affairs Select Committee, Keith Vaz, held private talks with Lord Coe, who was asked to justify the deal with the Dow Chemical Company.
Dow officials would be invited to attend further talks next week as Lord Coe failed to satisfy MPs that Dow does meet London 2012's ethical code, the report said.
Vaz said that Dow must withdraw until the issues in Bhopal get resolved.
"The best course of action is for Dow to withdraw until the issues in Bhopal have been resolved, but I am happy to hear what they have to say," Vaz said.
"This is not the right kind of sponsorship for the world's greenest Olympics," he added.
The meeting came amid growing pressure from a cross-party campaign to make Locog reverse its decision.
Barry Gardiner MP, chair of Labour Friends of India, urged the organizing committee to think again over the decision in order to protect the reputation of the Olympic legacy for Britain
"Its failure to take the victims of Bhopal and ongoing contamination into account is particularly ironic given the UK Government had to spend 12.7 million pounds cleaning up the Olympic site, which was 'grossly contaminated' by toxic waste," Gardiner added. (ANI)
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