Communist Party of India (Marxist) leader Pinarayi Vijayan has promised that the Left Democratic Front, if voted to power in the State, would accord priority to speed up the ongoing relief and rehabilitation projects of endosulfan victims in the district.
The LDF government would take steps to provide requisite medical facility at the local level to treat the victims and write off their loans, Mr. Vijayan said after visiting four endosulfan-affected panchayats here on Thursday.
Arguing that the functioning of the district-level endosulfan rehabilitation cell began to face crisis after the district panchayat was divested of its control by bringing it under the supervision of the Minister-in-charge, he said the cell should be brought back to the panchayat’s control.
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Listing out various lacunae in the ongoing relief package, he urged the State government to take initiatives to get the Rs.500-crore assistance offered by the Centre.
The CPI(M) leader was here in connection with his Statewide Nava Kerala March that kicks off from the northern border town of Uppala on Friday.
Mr. Vijayan visited endosulfan-hit areas of Enmakaje, Belloor, Muliyar and Karadukka panchayats in the district. He was accompanied by party leaders P. Karunakaran, MP; M.V. Govindan and district party secretary K.P. Satheesh Chandran.
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Election drama: BJP
Meanwhile, the BJP leadership here termed Mr. Vijayan’s visit to endosulfan-affected panchayats as an “election drama amounting to betrayal of the victims.”
The CPI(M), which had been ruling the State in successive terms for the last three decades, had not done anything concrete for the deprived and the marginalised sections and Mr. Vijayan’s visit was aimed only at gaining political mileage ahead of the approaching elections, BJP Kasaragod Mandalam president M. Sudhama Gosada alleged.
The much-hyped endosulfan packages announced by the LDF governments were futile and people had identified the CPI(M)’s designs, he said.