KASARAGOD: After around 16 months in limbo, the Cell for Rehabilitation of Endosulfan Survivors has been reconstituted on Wednesday.
According to a government order from the Department of Social Justice, the Cell would be headed by minister for Local Self Governments and Excise MV Govindan. Collector Bhandari Swagat Ranveerchand will be the convenor of the cell, the order said.
The Cell for Rehabilitation of Endosulfan Survivors is an important agency of the government to review and implement the programmes and projects for the survivors of the aerial spraying of the pesticide. But the cell formed in 2016 and headed by E Chandrasekharan stopped convening after October 2020. To be sure, the Cell has to meet at least once in two months.
After the new government was formed, the collector wrote to the department in August 2021 to urgently reconstitute the Cell so that the activities and issues of the survivors could be discussed and resolved. The government took another six months to study the letter "in-depth" and on Wednesday reconstituted the cell.
The Cell has Kasaragod's MP, the MLAs, district panchayat president, president of the 11 affected gram panchayats, former MLAs and MP, and 17 officials, representatives of 10 recognised political parties.
But in the 59-member committee, the government could not find space to accommodate even one voice of the survivor or NGOs and activists who work with the survivors. "Without us, no one in the Cell would raise the issues of the endosulfan survivors," said Munisa Ambalathara, president of the Endosulfan Peethitha Janakeeya Munanni and member of the previous Cell.
In the 2016-2021 Cell, there were 80 members. "I never missed even one meeting of the Cell. I noticed that only around 50 persons attended the meetings and only four or five persons routinely raised the issues facing the survivors," she said.
In the previous Cell, the government had included activists such as Ambikasuthan Mangad, Periya Narayanan, KV Mohammed Kunhi of Punchiri, and Munisa.
Veteran social activist and convenor of the Munanni Ambalathara Kunhikrishnan said the purpose of the Cell would be defeated without the presence of activists in the body. "Panchayat presidents ask us to know the status and problems of the survivors. The survivors also approach us when they face any hurdle. We will be meeting the collector soon with a petition," he said.
Collector Bhandari agreed activists play a key role in taking up the cause of the survivors. "If there was a precedent of activists in the Cell, she would include them," she said.
The government order reconstituting the Endosulfan Cell did not include Kasaragod MLA NA Nellikkunnu. "Even before I became an MLA, I have been raising the issues of endosulfan survivors. But the government may be trying to silence me by not including my name in the list," he said.
To be sure, the Cell has even former MLAs and MP as members. Officials said it was an inadvertent slip and it would be corrected soon.