KASARGOD: Collector D Sajith Babu recommended a re-examination of all the 6,727 persons identified by the government as endosulfan victims after he found financial irregularities worth crores of rupees in the disbursal of aids and solatium to the survivors.
The findings are part of a report he submitted to the Department of Social Justice on July 24, 2020. The report was made public on Friday by Kerala Agricultural University's professor K M Sreekumar, a vocal denialist of the endosulfan-triggered disaster.
At the end of his 73-page report, Sajith Babu made four recommendations. He asked the government to formulate criteria to identify endosulfan-affected patients, and re-examine all the 6,727 patients now on the list.
He asked the government to take steps to remove unmerited persons from the list.
He also asked the government to deploy ICDS supervisors to collect one-time data on all endosulfan by visiting their houses, and then assign Anganwadi staff to visit the houses and submit a status report every month.
Social activists welcomed the collector's decision to weed out undeserving persons from the list of endosulfan patients but condemned the recommendations to re-examine all the 6,727 patients.
"The government already has a set of guidelines to identify endosulfan patients. Medical camps are conducted based on the guidelines and patients are identified after a rigorous process," said writer Ambikasuthan Mangad.
"A blanket call to re-examine all the patients in an attempt to scuttle the government's welfare programmes under the cover of a few irregularities," he said.
Endosulfan Peeditha Janakeeya Munnani's Ambalathara Kunhikrishnan said the collector's recommendation to re-examine all the patients was in line with his prejudice against endosulfan-affected families. "We get a feeling that the government posted Sajith Babu in Kasaragod with the sole objective to discredit endosulfan victims and sabotage the welfare programmes from the inside," he said.
To be sure, the collector in his report was critical of the officials and the medical officers who perpetrated the alleged financial irregularities.
Beneficiaries and benefits
In his report, the collector said that the government had spent Rs 285 crore on endosulfan patients. The money was spent on providing free ration, buying and maintaining ambulances, providing medical treatment, pension, benefits for caregivers, scholarships, and waiving loans.
Of the 6,728 patients, 1,498 persons were identified as mentally ill and 371 persons were identified as bed-ridden patients. They are eligible for Rs 5 lakh as solatium as recommended by the Supreme Court and the National Human Rights Commission, free ration, pension, power subsidy, and scholarship.
The list has 699 cancer patients and 1,189 persons with physical disabilities.
They are eligible for Rs 3 lakh solatium and the other benefits given to mentally ill patients.
Depending on the patients' health, the government gives them a pension of Rs 2,200 or Rs 1,200 per month and another Rs 700 to the caregivers of patients.
Financial irregularities
In the report, the collector said 125 families continued to receive pension even after the endosulfan patients passed on. The government unwarrantedly paid Rs 41 lakh as pensions to these families, the report said.
The report said that 55 persons in the list were identified as infertile but 28 persons became parents and one woman suffered a miscarriage.
Of the 55 persons, 26 persons were couples, and husbands and wives were getting pensions.
Caregivers are given Rs 700 per month as benefits. Rs 4.54 crore was spent on 813 beneficiaries.
However, 25 caregivers continued to receive the Rs 700 per month even after the patient died, the report said.
NHM office under scanner
Several endosulfan patients seek treatments in private hospitals in Mangaluru and Manipal in Karnataka and the bills are footed by the state government.
The National Health Mission (NHM) verifies the bills before clearing the amount. However, medical bills of endosulfan patients worth Rs 6.05 crore were not available in the office of the NHM, the report said.
The report also said that Rs 3.27 crore was reimbursed to Kasturba Medical College, Mangaluru, the highest among private hospitals.
Pariyaram Ayurveda Hospital sent bills worth Rs 2.70 crore.
More than 10 patients had bills worth Rs 10 lakh, with one patient raising a bill of Rs 31.48 lakh over a period of time.
The report, however, did not specify any irregularities in the bills of the individuals.
Loan waivers
Bank loans worth Rs 6.83 crore of 2,153 patients were written off by the government. Most of the loans were taken from cooperative banks.
Education loan, Commercial loans.
There should be clarity on the kinds of loans that could be waived and ideally, only loans taken to meet medical expenses should be waived, he said.
Dead or alive, a multi-crore question
The first medical camp to identify endosulfan patients was conducted in 2010. But the field officers drew up a list of 734 deceased persons before the first camp and concluded they died of endosulfan-related ailments.
Of them, 113 persons turned up at the first camp, the report said. The government had wrongly given them Rs 3.90 crore as solatium.
Also, the report said that the average age of men in Kerala is 72 years and women is 78 years. Yet, 42 deceased men above the age of 72 and 10 deceased women were identified as endosulfan patients, and their families were given Rs 1.94 crore as solatium.
The report said families of 38 persons who died after registering for the medical camp were also given Rs 1.60 crore as solatium.
In his report, the collector named a few persons who requested their names be removed from the endosulfan list.
He said a girl was listed as mentally ill but cleared class X on her own, and another boy also listed as mentally ill got a diploma in engineering and got a job abroad.
The collector said the medical doctors and officials made decisions based on emotions and not scientific reasoning. It was unfortunate that such officials and doctors are still in service, he said in the report.