High-level meeting fails to address major issues

THIRUVANATHAPURAM: The highlevel meeting under the chairmanship of Chief Minister V S Achuthanandan on Tuesday failed to give anything to cheer about for the 3,809 endosulfanaffected families
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THIRUVANATHAPURAM: The highlevel meeting under the chairmanship of Chief Minister V S Achuthanandan on Tuesday failed to give anything to cheer about for the 3,809 endosulfanaffected families of Kasargod.

There has not been any major decision either on the setting up of a tribunal to look into the issues or on compensation package of `10 lakh per deceased person, two longstanding demands of the endosulfan victims.

He, however, announced a special package, the details of which will be worked out on Wednesday. The major outcome of the meeting was the decision to send an allparty delegation from the state to New Delhi. The other positive outcomes include the decision to appoint a deputy collector as incharge of the Endosulfan Victims Relief and Remediation Cell to strengthen its functions and to hike the pension given to the affected families, the details of which will be worked out later.

The Endosulfan Virudha Samara Samiti convener P V Sudheerkumar told reporters later that they had demanded a monthly pension of `5,000 for the victims, which the government had agreed to consider. The Samara Samiti demanded a total ban on use of pesticide in Kasargod district, to which the Agriculture Minister responded that Kasargod would be made free of at least the highly toxic pesticides of the red and yellow category. The Samiti was highly critical about the 48hour socioeconomic survey conducted by the Health Department by terming it as totally unscientific and opaque. Any rehabilitation package has to be worked out on a census mode of operation and by taking NIOH study as a baseline one, said Sudheerkumar. The Mooliyar Punchiri Club president K B Muhammed Kunhi said that most of the land under the Plantation Corporation, which have not been surveyed for a long time, was given on lease by the Forests Department. He argued that the land should be taken over by the Forests Department and converted back to natural forest. The fallow land should be handed over to the endosulfan victims, he said.

The Endosulfan Virudha Samara Samiti held the government, the Agriculture Department, agricultural scientists, pesticide manufacturers, PCK and the District Collector jointly responsible for the tragedy. "Aerial spraying of the pesticide continuously for decades was a violation of the Indian Insecticide Act and as the monitoring committees turned a blind eye, neither the Central nor the state government can escape from the responsibility,'' Muhammed Kunhi said.

At the press conference, ESPAC member Dr Mohan Kumar criticised both the National and State Human Rights Commissions for treating this as a cruel joke. He said that the villagers of Enmakaje did not want any more studies or surveys.

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