Activist Daya Bai, who has been on a hunger strike in front of the government secretariat in Thiruvananthapuram since October 2, refused to call off the stir insisting that the government should propose Kasargod as a location for the new All India Institute of Medical Sciences (AIIMS) being considered by the Centre.
Kerala Health Minister Veena George and Minister for Higher Education and Social Justice R Bindu held talks with Bai and assured undertaking of measures to improve the health infrastructure of the district as well as to conduct medical camps to identify more endosulfan victims. Bai urged that the state government should also propose Kasargod as a location for AIIMS.
She said that the presence of an institute like AIIMS in the district would help in conducting further studies on the impact of endosulfan on future generations also.
Though the health condition of the 81-year-old activist deteriorated and she was shifted to the hospital, she refused to call off the hunger strike.