If Muslim League's Kasaragod MLA N A Nellikkunu was the only speaker in the Assembly on Wednesday, the House would not have possibly felt the intensity of the current distress of endosulfan victims.
It was left to Opposition Leader V D Satheesan to prick the collective conscience of the Assembly. Satheesan made his case with such emotional sharpness that even Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan found it better to remain silent than counter his opponent.
Nellikkunnu, though it was he who moved the adjournment motion, did not even speak about the problem that he had given in the notice for seeking leave for the motion: the dysfunctional 'remediation cell' for endosulfan victims.
Nellikkunnu did touch upon relevant issues like the fears of victims that the existing list of affected people, from which beneficiaries are selected for various assistance schemes, would be dumped in favour of a new one. But the Kasaragod MLA, reading out from a written text, sounded more like an untrained actor who just could not capture the right pitch for the lines given to him. It was hard to take him seriously.
This allowed higher education and social justice minister R Bindu to conveniently read out what had been written for her by her officers, not bothering to respond to any of the major issues.
By the time Satheesan's turn to deliver his walk out speech came, the minister was freed of her obligation to respond. Nonetheless, it was Satheesan who told the House why it was important to activate the remediation cell. "The cell has not met for over a year, " Satheesan said, a basic information that Nellikkunnu forgot to mention. "This is the only platform where the victims could air their grievances, " he said.
The Opposition Leader also asked pointed questions that Nellikkunnu failed to ask. He said a medical camp held in 2017 had included 1905 more people to the list of victims. "But 1031 have still not been included," Satheesan said. He wanted to know why such a lapse had happened even after a meeting convened by the Chief Minister on February 3, 2019, wanted the decision to be implemented. He also asked why a medical camp was not held though the meeting convened by the Chief Minister had mandated so over two years ago.
Satheesan said that 3713 endosulfan victims were yet to receive any assistance even after the Supreme Court ordered in 2017 that all endosulfan victims should be given a uniform financial support of Rs 5 lakh. "The disbursal had to be completed in three months. But four years have gone by, " Satheesan said.
Like Nellikkunnu, Satheesan also reminded the House of the surprising stand taken by the former Kasaragod collector who had publicly disputed the victimhood of many in the official list and called for a thorough revision. If Nellikkunnu stated the fact, Satheesan articulated the sheer outrageousness of the former collector's stand. "The official list was drawn up in three stages. A preliminary list was prepared at the level of primary and community health centres. This was then vetted by a medical team headed by the district medical officer. And the final list was prepared by a team of 11 specialist doctors picked from various medical colleges in the state and field-level investigations, " Satheesan said. "Was this collector a government representative or an agent of the endosulfan company, " he asked and sought the Chief Minister's response. "I would like your comment on this," Satheesan said. But the Chief Minister sat as if the question was not put to him.
