The Endosulfan Peeditha Janakeeya Munnani (EPJM), which is spearheading the endosulfan victims’ fight for compensation, has decided to file a contempt of court petition against the State government for failing to abide by the January 10 Supreme Court ruling that all the 5,848 victims be given compensation of ₹5 lakh each in three months.
A decision to this effect was taken by the EPJM’s executive meeting held in Kanhangad on Wednesday, its general secretary Ambalathara Kunhikrishnan has said.
Maintaining that only 2,665 out of the total 5,848 victims, who found their names on the official list, were given the third instalment of the National Human Rights Commission (NHRC)-recommended compensation, he said the authorities had left out 3,020 victims, who were yet to get any assistance.
“This amounts to gross violation of the Supreme Court verdict that the State pay compensation without showing any discrimination on the extent of the health hazard,” he said.
Another agitation
The court in its ruling had made it clear to the State that it should collect the required amount either from the Centre or the pesticide company responsible for the indiscriminate aerial spraying of the pesticide in the State-owned cashew estates in the district.
Demands
Mr. Kunhikrishnan said yet another intensified agitation was being planned seeking solution to the numerous issues faced in “silence” by the victims and their families in the remote hamlets of Kasaragod.
Among the demands are disbursal of immediate financial assistance to victims who figured on the official list as per the special medical camp held in 2007, waiving loans taken for meeting medical expenses, clearing of anomalies in the ration card category list, and clearing of endosulfan stocked in barrels at Nenjanparamba in Enmakaje grama panchayat.
DYFI move
Meanwhile, the Democratic Youth Federation of India has decided to approach the Supreme Court, accusing the Centre of laxity in arranging the compensation amount nearly five months after the expiry of the apex court’s deadline, its district secretary K. Manikandan said.
