Victims of indiscriminate spraying of pesticide endosulfan in Kasaragod district staged a day-long agitation in front of the Secretariat on Tuesday, demanding that the State government implement the Supreme Court order issued in January last year to disburse ₹5 lakh as compensation to all victims on the official list within three months.
Inaugurating the protest, social activist Daya Bai criticised the State government for closing its eyes to the sufferings of the mothers and the children.
“When this government came to power, it promised to set everything right. I had so much of hope. But now, everything has been destroyed. The sufferings of these children were not caused by nature, but due to the acts of those ruling us. The officials say that there are issues with the list of affected people. But if these officials really cared and had gone out to the ground and enquired, they would have found more people who have been excluded from the list,” she said.
The social activist said that rehabilitation centres, special schools and skill development centres to nurture the special skills possessed by the victims should be opened.
CPI leader Binoy Viswam said he was confident that the LDF government would take necessary steps to alleviate the sufferings of the victims.
Endosulfan Peeditha Janakeeya Munnani secretary Ambalathara Kunhikrishnan said they had decided to stage the protest as there was no other way to get attention.
Later, Revenue Minister E. Chandrasekharan, who belongs to Kasaragod district, visited the protest venue. He told the protesters that the Chief Minister would convene a meeting with them in Kasaragod next week to discuss the issues.
The activists said the committee will launch an indefinite hunger strike from March 15.
