KASARGOD: The State government has partially implemented the Supreme Court’s order to compensate the endosulfan-affected families before April 10.
On Thursday, Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan initiated the distribution of compensation to 3,550 endosulfan-affected families as per the recommendation of the National Human Rights Commission (NHRC). The government will distribute Rs 56.76 crore to the families as the third and final tranche of compensation to the families.
At a function at the Collectorate in Kasargod on Thursday, Pinarayi distributed 11 cheques to 11 victims from 11 grama panchayats affected by aerial spraying of endosulfan by the government’s Plantation Corporation of Kerala. The rest of the cheques would be distributed by officials, he said. However, 3,020 persons in the government’s endosulfan-affected list were not given any compensation and the State was not intending to redress them, said Ambalathara Kunhikrishnan, activist and convenor of Endosulfan Peeditha Janakeeya Munnani.
“They were left out because the officials wrongly interpreted the recommendations of the NHRC,” he said.
In December, 2010, the NHRC urged the state government to pay Rs 5 lakh each to the families of the deceased, bedridden and those with intellectual disabilities; and Rs 3 lakh to those with other disabilities. The officials, however, defined other disabilities as only physical, leaving out 3,020 persons affected by endosulfan, he said.