Nav Kerala Sadas gives no relief to endosulfan victims of Kasaragod

Thiruvananthapuram: The much-hyped ‘Nav Kerala Sada’ public outreach program of the Left Front government in Kerala has failed to weed out the long-pending complaints of endosulfan victims of Kasaragod.

With no relief from the public relations programme, the Endosulfan victims are going ahead with their plans to hold another protest in front of the Government Secretariat on 8 December.

The plight of endosulfan victims has been a burning issue for Kasaragod, where hundreds of people are struggling with mental and physical deformities due to pesticide use in the area.

However, he did not get any attention in the Nav Kerala Sadas that started from Kasaragod on Saturday.

Even as the Chief Minister and ministers had interacted with prominent personalities from Kasaragod as part of outreach programmes, no representative of endosulfan victims was invited.

Although some victims had gone to the venue with the hope of meeting the Chief Minister in person and narrating their plight, they were only allowed to submit their representation to officials at the counters.

Ajatha MK, leader of Endosulfan Victims Action Council, said, “Though we had earlier met several ministers and put forward our problems, there has been no relief so far. So, we were hoping to meet the CM. But That didn’t happen either.” Told DH.

The long pending demand of the Action Council is to include the 1,031 victims in the government’s list of endosulfan victims and provide them relief such as medical aid and pension.

A medical camp held in 2017 found 1,905 people suffering from mental and physical deformities. Ajitha, whose husband is also among the victims, said 1,031 of them have not yet been formally recognized as endosulfan victims despite repeated assurances from the government.

Additionally, many drug suppliers have stopped supplying drugs to endosulfan victims due to payment delays. The pension of Endosulfan victims, which was pending for over seven months to around 6,600 beneficiaries, was distributed just before the Nava Kerala House. Due to slow completion of many day care and rehabilitation projects announced for the victims, parents of endosulfan victims are struggling to even access jobs to earn a living.

Former minister and senior Left Front MLA from the district E. Chandrasekaran said that even though the endosulfan victims could not meet the Chief Minister in person, their representations would be given due consideration.