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Tuesday, Apr 25, 2006

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National

Politics of pesticide

The plight of the victims of endosulfan and the failure of the Government to act are hot issues in Kasaragod, says Roy Mathew

A vicitim of endosulfan in Kasaragod district.

Projects were prepared and there were promises of relief and rehabilitation. However, budget allocations were never made. It remains a mystery why Kerala's Chief Minister Oommen Chandy failed to address the problems of the victims of endosulfan in Kasaragod district.

The Chief Minister had promised a ban on endosulfan on the basis of a court verdict. But within days of the Cabinet endorsing it in December 2004, the Director of Agriculture signed a Central committee report (Mayee Committee), which concluded that no link had been established between the use of endosulfan and the health problems faced by the people.

This helped the State-owned Plantation Corporation of Kerala (PCK), which sprayed the pesticide in its plantations in about 30 villages for more than two decades, to disown responsibility. At the same time, the Government's publicity department was paradoxically claiming that the lethal pesticide had turned the countryside into a land of doom.

The plight of the victims and the failure of the Government to act are now hot issues in Kasaragod. Some 6000 people living near the PCK plantations were reportedly affected by the pesticide.

Many more in the neighbouring villages carry the poison in their blood. According to Dr. Y. S. Mohan Kumar and Dr. Sripathi Kajampady, who treated the victims, respiratory disease, gynaecological problems, psychiatric disorders and epilepsy had come down after spraying was stopped five years ago. But that is of little consolation to those with malformations, spastic disorders, cancer, and liver and hormonal problems attributed to the pesticide.

The victims are resigned to their fate and how they vote may be determined by communal and other considerations. However, activists of Kasaragod District Environmental Council and others are very upset with the Government and UDF legislators from the region. The Chief Minister did not bother to visit them when they were on hunger strike over the issue, they complain.

Narayanan Periya and P.V. Sudheer of the Council are happy that Opposition Leader V.S. Achuthanandan has identified himself with their cause. Writer Ambikasutan Mangad notes that endosulfan has been made an issue only during the elections. They will forget about it after the elections, she says cynically.

The issue has put the UDF on the defensive, particularly in Majeswaram and Kasaragod districts. The UDF manifesto does not mention endosulfan while the CPI-M led Left Democratic Front (LDF) and the Bharatiya Janata Party promise a ban. The LDF also promises financial assistance for the victims.

The UDF candidate in Majeswaram constituency, Cherkkalam Abdulla (Muslim League), who has represented the constituency for 20 years, blames district officials for not implementing the projects proposed following the Chief Minister's visit.

LDF campaigners point out that Mr. Abdulla and C. T. Ahamed Ali (the League candidate in Kasaragod constituency), had done little for the victims while Opposition members had raised around 20 submissions on the issue in the Assembly.

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