Endosulfan compensation to be disbursed by October: Kasaragod District Collector

Dist admn to set up portal to transfer money to victims’ accounts
Endosulfan survivor Arpitha lies on mother Usha's shoulder. (File Photo | TP Sooraj, EPS)
Endosulfan survivor Arpitha lies on mother Usha's shoulder. (File Photo | TP Sooraj, EPS)

KASARGOD: The district administration will begin giving compensation to endosulfan victims by mid-June and will complete the disbursal by October, Kasaragod District Collector Bhandari Swagar Ranveerchand said on Friday. By mid-June, the revenue and health officials will complete the verification of 3,704 endosulfan survivors to whom the compensation has to be paid, she said. According to a Supreme Court order on January 10, 2017, the state government has to pay Rs 5 lakh each to 6,727 persons identified by the government as endosulfan survivors.

Of them, the government has fully paid compensation only to 1,454 people in the past five years. Twelve of them got the compensation after they filed a contempt of court petition against the state government in 2019 and 2022. “We fail to understand the logic or the rationale of the state government in disbursing compensation only to those who have the ability to move this court,” said Supreme Court Justices D Y Chandrachud and Surya Kant in their order on May 13, while hearing a contempt petition filed by eight survivors.

The apex court directed the chief secretary to hold monthly meetings to ensure that the 2017 judgment “is diligently implemented” by ensuring the disbursement of compensation of `5 lakh to each of the victims. The contempt petition is listed on July 18.

The collector said the government has credited Rs 200 crore to her bank account to disburse the compensation. The district administration is setting up an online portal so that the money can be directly credited to the bank account of the survivors. “The portal will be similar to the relief portal set up by the government to disburse covid ex gratia,” she said.

The endosulfan compensation portal will have all the details of the survivors and they can access the site from their homes by using their out-patient (OP) number. All the survivors have to do is upload copies of their Aadhaar, ration card, and bank passbook, she said. The rest of the details will be on the portal.

SURVIVORS AND OTHERS
There are 102 bedridden patients and 326 patients with intellectual disabilities who are yet to get any compensation. Of the 1,189 survivors with physical disabilities, 988 people have got Rs 3 lakh each, and 201 people have not got any compensation. Of the 699 cancer patients, 580 have got Rs 3 lakh each and 119 have not got any compensation. There are 2,929 endosulfan survivors classified as others.

The government would have paid none of them any compensation if not for the contempt petitions filed against it in the Supreme Court by 12 survivors. Of the 2,929 other category victims, the district administration is likely to drop 71 survivors from the list of beneficiaries, said sources.

They said the decision could be made based on a report filed by former collector D Sajith Babu, who found 71 survivors ineligible. Sajith Babu, in his report, had named 29 people, who were identified as victims of endosulfan because they were infertile but had children, and another 39 cases of double-entry, which together come to 68. That would leave the health and revenue officials to visit the houses of 3,634 victims to check their eligibility. To date, they have visited the houses of around 800 survivors (22%) and found all of them eligible, said the collector.

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