Nava Kerala Sadas gives no relief to endosulfan victims of Kasargod, stir at secretariat on Dec 8

Thiruvananthapuram: The much-hyped 'Nava Kerala Sadas' mass outreach programme of the Left-front government in Kerala has failed to alleviate the long pending grievances of the endosulfan victims of Kasargod.

With no relief from the mass outreach programme, the endosulfan victims are going ahead with their plans to hold yet another protest in front of the government secretariat on December 8.

Plight of endosulfan victims has been a burning issue for Kasargod where, hundreds of people with mental and physical deformities caused by the use of pesticide in the region, are struggling.

However, they did not receive any attention at the Nava Kerala Sadas that kicked off from Kasargod on Saturday.

Even as the CM and ministers had interacted with prominent personalities of Kasargod as part of the outreach programmes, no representatives of endosulfan victims were invited.

Though some of the victims went to the programme venue with the hopes of meeting the CM in person and conveying their plight, but they were allowed only to hand over their representations to the officials at the counters.

"Though we had earlier met many ministers and taken up our plights, so far there is no relief. Hence, we were hoping to meet the CM. But that too did not happen," Ajtha M K, an action council leader of endosulfan victims, told DH.

A long-pending demand of the action council is to include 1,031 victims in the government's endosulfan victims' list and extend reliefs like medical assistance and pensions to them.

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

This apart, owing to delay in payments many medicine suppliers have stopped supply of medicines to endosulfan victims. The pension to endosulfan victims that was pending for up to seven months for around 6,600 odd beneficiaries was disbursed just ahead of the Nava Kerala Sadas. With many day care and rehabilitation projects announced for the victims materialising only at snail's pace, parents of endosulfan victims are struggling to even go for jobs to eke out a living.

Former minister and left-front senior MLA from the district E Chandrasekharan justified that even as the endosulfan victims could not meet the chief minister in person, their representations would get due consideration.