Endosulfan compensation: SC orders state govt to provide Rs 50,000 every to contempt petitioners

Express News Service

KASARGOD: The Supreme Court got here down onerous on the federal government of Kerala for sleeping on a 2017 order that requested it to pay Rs 5 lakh every to all of the endosulfan survivors in Kasaragod.

Hearing a contempt petition filed by eight survivors, a bench of Justices DY Chandrachud and Surya Kant mentioned the compensation ought to attain the endosulfan survivors and never be within the authorities’s books.

“You (The government) have set aside Rs 200 crore. That does not serve the purpose. It has to reach the survivor,” the court docket mentioned, in line with PS Sudheer, the counsel for the petitioners.

The state authorities gave Rs 5 lakh every to the eight survivors and urged the Supreme Court to shut the contempt petition, which irked the court docket.

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The apex court docket instructed the federal government to pay Rs 50000 every to all of the eight survivors as authorized price for forcing them to return to the Supreme Court, mentioned Sudheer.

The court docket mentioned the state authorities wakened solely after the survivors filed a contempt petition within the Supreme Court. In 2019, too, the state authorities paid Rs 5 lakh every to 4 endosulfan survivors who filed a contempt petition within the Supreme Court.

On April 8, 2022, whereas listening to the contempt petition filed by eight survivors, the federal government sought 4 weeks to adjust to the 2017 order. But the federal government paid the compensation solely to those that filed the contempt petition and sought to shut the case.

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“Are you a welfare state? If you are, you will have to pay all the money to the survivors,” the court docket instructed the state authorities on Friday.

The Supreme Court additionally requested the chief secretary VP Joy to file an affidavit on what the state authorities did to make sure lifelong therapy to the endosulfan survivors. That was one other facet of the Supreme Court’s 2017 order.

Ignoring the federal government’s request to shut the case, the Supreme Court scheduled the following listening to for the third week of July and requested the chief secretary to convene a gathering each month to evaluation the progress of paying compensation to all of the endosulfan-affected individuals.

The authorities instructed the court docket that it could be giving compensation to “all the victims” solely after a workforce of Health and Revenue officers go to the homes of the survivors and “verify their eligibility in accordance with the present criteria for identification of endosulfan victims”.

Activists working for endosulfan survivors mentioned the federal government had already recognized the survivors via particular medical camps and social surveys and one other verification was simply to disclaim compensation to some survivors.

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To make sure, the federal government had recognized 6,727 individuals as endosulfan victims.

Of them, the federal government has not but given compensation to three,706 individuals or round 55% of the victims.

In her report, the Kasaragod collector mentioned one other Rs 217.06 crore was wanted to totally compensate the survivors. But the federal government has allotted solely Rs 200 crore to compensate the survivors.