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Seeking to widen his government’s campaign against endosulfan, the Kerala Chief Minister, Mr V.S. Achuthanandan, has written to his counterparts in other states requesting them to bring combined pressure on the Centre to impose a nationwide ban on the pesticide.
Ahead of a Kerala ‘hartal’ tomorrow called by the ruling CPI(M)-led LDF on the endosulfan issue, Mr Achuthanandan, in his letter, highlighted the ill-effects due to use of the pesticide over the years in Kerala’s Kasargode district where over 400 people died and hundreds were suffering from serious health problems.
He also attached the copies of reports of studies on the death and environmental devastation caused by spraying of endosulfan over the years at a state-run cashew estate in Kasargode.
The 87-year-old CPI-M leader, who recently observed a day-long fast on the issue, wanted his counterparts to prevail upon the Centre to ask for global ban on endosulfan at the ongoing Stockholm Convention on Persistent Organic Pollutants.
Realising the grim danger posed by the pesticide to living beings and nature, it had been banned by 80 countries but the UPA Government at the Centre was still reluctant to take action, Mr Achuthanandan said.
He said there was no need for further studies to establish the grievous consequences of endosulfan as the experience of Kerala had sufficiently brought out that aspect.
An all-party delegation from Kerala had met the Prime Minister, Dr Manmohan Singh, recently to press the demand for ban on endosulfan.
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