New York: In response to the controversy faced by Dow Chemicals on accountability over the Bhopal gas tragedy, some shareholders have asked the company to address its liability for the disaster that was caused by its subsidiary Union Carbide.

The shareholder resolution was filed by Boston Common Asset Managements on behalf of its client, the Brethren Benefit Trust Inc, which holds 9,158 shares of Dow Chemical stock valued at approximately $ 330,000.

It calls on Dow to prepare a report describing the initiatives it has taken to address the specific health, environmental and social concerns of the Bhopal survivors.

The 1984 Union Carbide gas disaster in Bhopal claimed more than 20,000 lives to date and left an estimated 150,000 people chronically ill, 50,000 of them too sick to earn a living, according to International Campaign for Justice.

Union Carbide's $ 470 million compensation package covered only civil awards for the half million people exposed, leaving unresolved the potential damages for criminal charges and for environmental contamination unrelated to the disaster, it added.

In the resolution, Boston Common is also requesting that Dow quantify and analyse the impacts that the Bhopal disaster may reasonably pose to the company, its reputation, finances, and expansion in Asia and elsewhere.

The filers, it said, are responding to the growing controversy Dow faces because it continues to "shirk its accountability" to the Bhopal survivors.

PTI