Endosulfan: Government Clarifies Stand

Trivandrum, India, Jul. 8 2002 (INS News) -- The Kerala State Agriculture Minister K R Gowriamma informed the state Assembly that the government has issued instructions to the Plantation Corporation, not to resort to spraying of any of the pesticides, including Endosulfan, in its 4,564 hectares of cashew plantations.

Opposing the admissibility of an adjournment motion, sought to be moved by Leader of Opposition V S Achutanandan,in the Kerala State assembly on the issue, Gowriamma pointed out that only Government of India could ban permanently the use of Endosulphan. She said that the state government has already send the reports of the various studies to the Central Pesticide Regulation Committee, which was the competent authority to take a decision on a permanent ban on Endosulfan.

The Agriculture Minister categorically denied the Opposition allegation that the government had lifted the ban on the use of Endosulfan in the cashew plantations in the state to favour a multinational company, which manufactured the pesticide.

Earlier Achutanandan pointed out that the aerial spraying of Endosulfan in the cashew plantations in thr areas of Kasaragod, northern part of the state of kerala, had resulted in scores suffering from cancer, malformation, learning disability and reproductory disorder, besides death of 60 people in the past four years, including 20 deaths during the past one year.

-- Sam Asharaf - South Asia Correspondent in Trivandrum, India
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