Thiruvananthapuram: Kerala's LDF Government today decided to seek from the Centre a special assistance of Rs 100 crore for relief and rehabilitation of endosulfan victims, Chief Minister V S Achuthanandan said after a meeting of the state cabinet.
An all-party delegation from the state would be going to Delhi soon to meet Prime Minister Panmohan Singh to take up this and other demands on the matter including a nationwide ban on the manufacture and sale of the pesticide, whose use resulted in human casualties and serious health problems to the people in parts of the state like Kasargode district.
The cabinet also approved the comphrehensive relief package for the affected families workd out at a high level meeting of ministers, officials and people's representatives held here yesterday.
The state Government would be setting up a special relief fund exclusively for the purupose.
The package included enhancement of pension and relief payments, supply of rice at the nominal rate of Rs 2 per Kg, debt relief measures and improvement of medical care for the vitctims and their families.
The package would bring immediate relief to 486 families, had been suffering from serious problems like malgrowth, mental retardation and physicial debilities for being exposed to the pesticide.
Several studies had pointed out that the situation was cuased by aerial spraying of endosulfan in state-owned cashew estates in Kasargode district.
Kerala had banned sale of endosulfan in any form or brand and has been campaigning for a nationwide ban of the pesticide.
The state has raised serious objections to India's silence on the issue at the intermational meets on the use of pesticide, where most other coutries, inluding the western nations, voiced concern over the ill-effects of chemical pesticides and higlighted the need to replace them with organic pest control methods.