MANGALURU: Left with no options, over 120 people affected by endosulfan poisoning, including 32 bed-ridden victims, left for Bengaluru in seven buses on Tuesday evening to take part in a daylong protest at Freedom Park on Wednesday.
The endosulfan sufferers are arriving in Bengaluru early on Wednesday, said Sridhar Gowda of Endo Virodhi Horata Samiti.
Gowda, who is also travelling with them, told Express that they were forced to stage a dharna in Bengaluru as the previous dharnas drew no response from the district administration. Inclusion of those suffering from impotency and cancer among others in the list of endosulfan victims, adequate compensation, quick disbursement of monthly stipend, free health care and drugs for psychiatric patients were their important demands.
Kerala Model Not Approved by GovtThe district administration which had kept insisting that stipend had been disbursed to all endosulfan victims had made a u-turn on Monday by acknowledging that 199 sufferers were yet to receive stipend.
A proposal to release compensation of `5 lakh, as on the lines of Kerala package, for endosulfan sufferers was not approved by the government.A proposal on building a permanent centre for them is pending before government. Besides, two mobile health care units, 10 hospitals empanelled by the district administration were providing cashless treatment, a release from the Deputy Commissioner claimed.