KASARGOD: Kasargod’s endosulfan protest, which attracted worldwide attention, can find a closure only if a tribunal is set up to settle the claims of the victims, and a palliative care hospital is built for their permanent care, said writer N S Madhavan.
“The long struggle will find a closure, a permanent solution, only if that step is crossed, and that is the most difficult one to achieve,” he said.Madhavan was speaking after inaugurating the fourth phase of the protest under Oppumaram -- the protest tree of Kasargod - organised by Envisag (Endosulfan Victims Support Aid Group) on Thursday.
Though the right to a healthy life was not explicitly written in the Constitution, it was made a fundamental right by the Supreme Court through sustained interventions, the writer said, referring to several landmark public health orders. “But getting the hard won rights implemented is the most difficult part,” he said.
The earlier demands of the Envisag protest were to ban endosulfan, and get solatium from Plantation Corporation of Kerala. “Those slogans were easy for the people to understand. But now, the affected need permanent care and a tribunal to settle their claims. People may find it hard to understand the importance of these demands, making it even more difficult to get them,” he said.
He also wondered why the state government was reluctant to get the money it spent on the affected back from the Central Government. Writer C V Balakrishnan said an all-party delegation from the state had gone to meet the Prime Minister with a series of demand, on Thursday.
“One of the MLAs even vandalised a toll booth on his way. But this delegation could not even include one demand of the endosulfan affected,” he said. When the government was the guilty, how would citizens get justice, he said.
Alancier’s short prayer takes a dig at all
Speaking briefly at the Oppumaram protest in Kasargod, actor Alencier Ley Lopez took a swipe at the film industry, the Church and the government for their alleged lack of sense of justice.It is a season of prayer, Alancier said. “Amma is praying for the son, the church is praying for the bishop. I will pray to the government to show some mercy on us (endosulfan victims),” he said.