(File photo) Pushparajan, an endosulfan victim, with mother Kavitha at their house in Kaithodu, Kasargod (Picture for representational purposes only - DC)
The Centre on Tuesday stunned Kerala by submitting before the Supreme Court that the health problems in Kasargod villages were not caused by endosulfan.
The ministry of agriculture said this in a counter affidavit filed before the SC in response to the petition submitted by the Democratic Youth Federation of India seeking a nationwide ban on endosulfan.
According to the Centre, there was no evidence that proper use of endosulfan caused health problems. Kerala’s problems were caused by the indiscriminate aerial spraying of endosulfan on the Kasargod plantations, it said.
While opposing the DYFI’s demand, the Centre admitted that several countries had banned endosulfan but added that the decisions were not based on any concrete studies but on mere surmise and suspicion.
The affidavit pointed out that those countries which banned endosulfan had low agricultural activity and India could not afford to imitate them. Further, the Centre claimed that the World Health Organisation too had given clean chit to endosulfan.
The opposition leader of Kerala Assembly, V.S. Achuthanandan, and the senior Congress leader, V.M. Sudheeran, sharply criticised the Centre’s affidavit saying it was meant to help pesticide giants.
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