Thiruvananthapuram, April 24: Kerala Chief Minister VS Achuthanandan on Saturday unleashed a scathing attack against Prime Minister Manmohan Singh for his refusal to give an assurance on banning Endosulfan to the all-party delegation from the State that visited him on Friday evening. Kerala has been demanding a nation-wide ban, along with Karnataka, on the killer pesticide.
Achuthanandan termed as “devilish” the Prime Minister’s position that a decision on banning Endosulfan could be taken only on the basis of yet another study on its hazards despite the fact that more than a dozen studies in Kasaragod had established the link between the deaths and mysterious health disorders found there and the pesticide.
“They want another study to know about the ill-effects of Endosulfan but they do not set any timeframe for that. The Prime Minister’s position seems to be that our poor brothers should die so that the rich pesticide monopolies can flourish. Manmohan Singh should not do use his position to protect the interests of the monopolies,” he told mediapersons in Thiruvananthapuram.
Singh had on Friday told a Kerala delegation headed by State Health Minister PK Sreemathi that he would have to wait for the result of an ICMR study, which was yet to begin, on Endosulfan before taking a decision on banning it. “The Prime Minister should not stoop to level of pro-Endosulfan people like Union Agriculture Minister Sharad Pawar,” Achuthanandan said.
The delegation had met the Prime Minister to request that India should take a position supporting global ban on Endosulfan at the Geneva session of the Stockholm Convention of the Persistent Organic Pollutants (POP) Review Committee starting Monday. Opposition leader Oommen Chandy had refused to be part of the delegation because the Chief Minister was not leading it.
Achuthanandan pointed out that the Indian Council for Medical Research (ICMR) itself had conducted studies in 2002 on the hazards of Endosulfan in Kasaragod and this report was with the Centre. The Prime Minister should consider the issue in all its seriousness and convene the Cabinet in this regard if needed, he added.
The Kerala Government, the Endosulfan victims in Kasaragod and the anti-pesticide crusaders are viewing the Central insistence on the ICMR study as a ploy to avoid taking a categorical position against the killer chemical at the Geneva meet. As many as 81 countries have already banned it and India was the only nation to oppose the ban proposal in the October session of the Stockholm Convention.
Entire Kerala will observe Monday as Anti-Endosulfan Day with satyagraha all over the State. Eighty-seven-year-old Achuthanandan will lead the satyagraha at the Martyrs’ Memorial in Thiruvananthapuram from 10 am to 5 pm on Monday. He will start the fast by drinking the lemon juice offered by Endosulfan victim Shahina of Bovikanam, Kasaragod, an area ravaged by the pesticide.
Continuing the attack against the Centre, Achuthanandan said that the UPA and the Congress party were apathetic towards the miseries of about 10,000 people of Kasaragod who were living in perpetual suffering due to Endosulfan-poisoning. Endosulfan has also caused about 1,000 deaths in Kasaragod since the beginning of its use in cashew estates in 1978.
“(Union Environment Minister) Jairam Ramesh projects himself as a crusader for the protection of environment. But the Endosulfan issue has proved that he holds anti-environment and anti-people feelings. He is against banning Endosulfan even when people in his own State, Karnataka, are reeling under the hardships posed by the pesticide,” Achuthanandan said.
–Agencies–