The All Kerala River Protection Committee has demanded that the State government listen to the problems of the Endosulfan victims in Kasargod once more and to restore their pensions post-haste. The committee led a protest at S.K.Square in Kozhikode on Wednesday following a call of the Endosulfan Protest Committee in Kasargod to observe Wednesday as a day of solidarity.
“The present District Collector of Kasargod maintains that Endosulfan was just another pesticide and that it cannot cause the kind of difficulties found in these victims. Hence, the victims now do not get any sort of help from the district administration”, said T.V. Rajan, State secretary of the River Protection Committee. Most of the problems now faced by the victims are due to the negligence of the present district administration, the protesters claimed, and demanded that the State government call back the Collector.
“Several parents are unable to go to work as they have to sit at home and take care of their sick children. The district administration is not even providing ambulance services to take the children to hospital”, Mr. Rajan said. Most of these victims still held APL ration cards and a major demand of them was to provide them BPL ration cards.
Meanwhile, more cases similar to the already recognised victims are being reported these days and the victims demand a revision of the list of victims by adding the new ones.
Madathil Abdul Azeez opened the protest while Mr.Rajan presided over the event. P.K. Sasidharan, P.T.Mohammed Koya and O.Sreedharan took part in the protest.
