The representatives of the victims of endosulfan poisoning in Kasaragod district called off their five-day-old sit-in in front of the Secretariat on Sunday after the State government conceded to their demand to bring more affected families within the ambit of the State’s compensation and rehabilitation programme.
Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan invited the Endosulfan Peeditha Janakiya Munnani for reconciliatory talks on the weekend holiday after the forum staged a march to his official residence in the morning.
The demonstrators included 30 mothers with health complications caused by pesticide exposure and their children, several of them handicapped by congenital deformities.
With Congress leader V.M. Sudheeran and social activist Dayabai pitting themselves in the vanguard of the protest, the government did not want to risk allowing the agitation to acquire a political dimension.
The marchers were also piqued by Health Minister K.K. Shylaja’s comment on Saturday that the Munnani had endangered endosulfan-impaired children by parading them in public.
The Chief Minister’s office proactively engaged the Munnani also to pre-empt the Opposition from making political capital out of the emotive issue in the run-up to the Lok Sabha elections.
Mr. Vijayan’s private secretary M.V. Jayarajan laid the groundwork for the reconciliation by holding informal talks with Munnani leaders. Mr. Sudheeran pitched in by making a personal appeal to Mr. Vijayan on the phone. Subsequently, the Mr. Vijayan directed the Munnani leaders to meet him at his conference hall in the Secretariat.
The government accepted the demand of the Munnani to include youngsters diagnosed in 2017 with signs of ‘plausible’ pesticide impairment on the current list of the 1,905 persons involved in the State’s endosulfan compensation scheme.
Cautious optimism
Mr. Vijayan also promised to extend the scheme beyond the 11 panchayats marred by the aerial spraying of pesticide to those affected in nearby localities. He also promised more special schools for children with deformities.
The demonstrators welcomed the development with cautious optimism and vowed to be back if the State went back on its word.