KASARGOD: The governments are practicing the Goebbels' principles of politics by repeatedly denying justice and hope to survivors of endosulfan expecting them to get used to their plight, said Sanjay Mangala Gopal, social activist and national coordinator of the National Alliance of People’s Movements.
He said he was surprised that endosulfan survivors were still protesting for treatment centres and compensation considering the CPM-led LDF government has won two successive elections in Kerala.
"But the government should know we know our rights and we will not beg but fight for them," he said in Kasaragod on Tuesday.
Gopal was speaking after inaugurating a 'Solidarity Convention' organised by the State Solidarity Committee to decide on the future course of action to press the government to implement the Supreme Court judgment on endosulfan compensation and ensure regular treatment for the survivors.
On a petition filed by the DYFI, the apex court in January 2017 ordered the state government to give Rs 5 lakh each to all the endosulfan survivors in three months, and also consider setting up palliative centres to provide care to survivors with life-long medical conditions.
After five years, 55% of the 6,728 survivors have not got any money.
Only 1,442 persons or 21% of the survivors got the meagre compensation of Rs 5 lakh as ordered by the Supreme Court.
Twice, the survivors have filed contempt petitions against the state government in the apex court.
"If it were a common man, they would have been behind the bars for contempt of court. Why is the Chief Minister not behind the bars? Why is there a special treatment?" said Gopal.
The government killed humanity and humans by spraying endosulfan from the skies without taking the permission of the people. "The land, water, and air belong to the people. The aerial spraying of endosulfan was a violation of the basic rights... You (the government) killed our hopes and future," he said.
He said the officials get the courage to treat endosulfan survivors like worms because politicians are corrupt.
Congress MP Rajmohan Unnithan said the state government was duty-bound to implement the Supreme Court judgment.
The Chief Minister, like Dhritarashtra, the blind Kuru king, started his election campaign by hugging endosulfan survivors, he said. But after coming to power, he forgot them, Unnithan said.
The people of Kasaragod are forced to protest to reconvene the Endosulfan Cell, appoint its chairman, they have to protest for specialist doctors such as neurologists, nephrologists and cardiologists, and hospitals in the district have been reduced to 'referral hospitals', he said, sarcastically twisting its meaning.
"Their only job is to refer patients coming to them to hospitals in Kannur and Mangaluru," the MP said.
Unnithan said the government should explain why Kasaragod was not being considered for AIIMS and why it is preferring Kozhikode, which already has six tertiary care hospitals, including a well-established medical college.
On giving compensation to endosulfan survivors, the government still has an outstanding commitment of Rs 217.07 crore to keep. "It does not have money for endosulfan survivors but it has enough money for K-Rail which is of no use for the people," Unnithan said.
Munisa Ambalathara, president of the Endosulfan Peethitha Janakeeya Munanni, said the government should stop seeing endosulfan survivors as an "additional financial liability".
"They are the victims of the government policies," she said.
After 10 years, the government gave Kasaragod a medical college that did not have facilities of a PHC, she said.
On protesting, the government appointed a neurologist in the out-patient clinic of the medical college at Ukkinadka. "But the situation has not become worse for the survivors," she said.
Now, patients have to go to Ukkinada because Kasaragod now officially has a government neurologist, she said.
"But when he prescribes an MRI scan or an EG test, patients will have to come to Kanhangad and get the permission of the District Programme Officer to go to Mangalauru to Kannur to do the test," she said.
In Pariyaram, the machine may not be working and in Mangaluru, patients are told to get RT-PCR tests before they could undergo scanning, she said. "The lives of poor families have become torturous after the neurologist have been appointed in the medical college without facilities," she said.
The government's apathy could be gauged from how around 50 houses built for endosulfan survivors by Sri Sathya Sai Orphanage Trust, Kerala, are lying in disuse despite many families living in rental houses, she said.