Kerala demand for pesticide ban intensifies

Lily

B.R
Staff member
Thiruvananthapuram: The demand to enforce a federal ban on the use of the pesticide endosulfan has intensified in Kerala, with the Communist Party of India Marxist blaming the Congress-led federal government for lack of action .Congress leaders from Kerala also have decided to go to Delhi to impress the central government on the need to ban the pesticide.

Chief minister V.S. Achuthanandan has squarely blamed the federal government, saying prime minister Manmohan Singh gave no inkling of the possibility of banning the pesticide when a team from the state visited him recently.

Anti-endosulfan day

The chief minister has decided to lead a mass fast on Monday for revocation of the permission to use the pesticide. The state government is observing the day as anti-endosulfan day.

The Bharatiya Janata Party in Kerala has also decided to support the anti-endosulfan issue, with senior leaders O Rajagopal and V Muraleedharan scheduled to join the protests.

The state leaders are also demanding that India should table a proposal to ban the pesticide at the Stockholm Convention on deadly pesticides, beginning today.

Delhi leaders criticised

Achuthanandan said it was "cruel" on the part of federal environment minister Jairam Ramesh to say that further studies were required to establish the negative effects of the pesticide before banning it. "Ramesh has been known to be a supporter of environmental issues. Now it is proven that he is in fact anti-environment," Achuthanandan said.

Kerala Pradesh Congress Committee president Ramesh Chennithala and Opposition leader Oommen Chandy are expected to go to Delhi today to meet with federal leaders and take up the endosulfan issue again.

Several Congress leaders in the state have criticised the central leadership for ignoring demands for a ban.

Genetic disorders

The state government has strongly condemned the indifferent attitude of the Congress leadership on the demand to ban the pesticide,

Anti-endosulfan activists say that the deadly pesticide is to blame for a wide variety of ailments in Kasaragod district, where many genetic disorders and other ailments have been noticed, particularly after the aerial spraying of endosulfan in the government-owned cashew plantations in the district.

Achuthanandan has alleged that the federal government and the Congress party, in particular, have been on the side of corporates, giving a free run for the pesticide in the country.
 
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