Achuthanandan stages fast for ban on toxic pesticide
April 25th, 2011 - 8:11 pm ICT by IANS
Thiruvananthapuram, April 25 (IANS) Kerala Chief Minister V.S. Achuthanandan Monday staged a seven-hour fast to demand a nation-wide ban on endosulphan, a highly toxic pesticide.
He began his fast at 10 a.m. along with a few cabinet colleagues. People from all walks of life, including a bishop, joined him in the fast which was held at the Martyr’s Column here.
The fast was staged to coincide with the Stockholm Convention on persistent organic pollutants, which began in Geneva. During the April 25-29 convention, India has decided it would not support a call for a ban on the pesticide, a Left leader said.
Besides the chief minister’s fast, activists of the ruling Left Democratic Front held protests in 13 districts of the state.
Achuthanandan said that Prime Minister Manmohan Singh’s tackling of the issue was deplorable.
“Kerala and Karnataka have banned this pesticide but the centre says that only if the whole country wants a ban, it is possible. Does it mean that only if the whole of the country suffers will the centre order the ban?” asked Achuthanandan.
The highlight of Achuthanandan’s fast was the presence of former central minister and veteran Bharatiya Janata Party leader O. Rajagopal, who was seated next to him.
Leader of Opposition Oommen Chandy of the Congress, who was away in Delhi to brief the prime minister on the immediate intervention to ban the pesticide, was critical of Achuthanandan.
“He should have conducted this fast in West Bengal because the (ruling Left) government has not yet asked for a ban. It is only Kerala and Karnataka who have banned this,” Chandy told IANS.
Achuthanandan “is making political capital out of this because in the five years that he was in power he never took up a case against the use of endosulphan”, Chandy said.
The use of endosulfan in the estates of state-owned Plantation Corporation of Kerala (PCK) in Kasargode district began in the early 1970s and continued till 2001.
About 500 deaths since 1995 have been officially acknowledged as related to the spraying of endosulfan in about 11 villages. Unofficial estimates put the deaths since the late 1970s around 4,000.
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- India should support global ban on endosulphan: Congress - Apr 19, 2011
- Kerala CM Achuthanandan on day-long fast for ban on endosulfan - Apr 25, 2011
- Kerala cancels licence to endosulfan factory - May 27, 2011
- Kerala math announces relief package for pesticide victims - Dec 09, 2010
- Left to continue protests till endosulfan is banned - May 02, 2011
- Kerala to seize endosulfan stocks - May 23, 2011
- Shutdown hits life in Kerala - Apr 29, 2011
- Achuthanandan flays central minister over pesticide - Oct 26, 2010
- Endosulfan can be phased out early if alternative found: Ramesh - May 03, 2011
- Many in Kerala still drink water containing endosulphan - Nov 12, 2010
- NHRC to raise issue of harmful effect of pesticide in Kerala (Lead, Changing dateline) - Dec 18, 2010
- Sushma Swaraj backs endosulfan ban - Apr 28, 2011
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