Jisha Surya Express News ServiceFirst Published : 01 Nov 2010 03:23:20 AM ISTLast Updated : 01 Nov 2010 12:11:21 PM IST
THIRUVANATHAPURAM: Union Minister K V Thomas’ pro-endosulfan speech is just a tip of the iceberg. It shows a smaller part of the Union Government’s policy of making profit by gambling the lives of common people.
A Government of India enterprise itself is producing endosulfan in Kerala for the past three decades though it is not known much to others.
The Government’s indifferent attitude towards the endosulfan-hit State is reflected in the factory standing tall at Udyogamandal in Kochi.
With an excuse that endosulfan ban has limited its use, Hindustan Insecticides Limited (HIL), a Government of India enterprise, under Ministry of Chemicals and Fertilizers, has been producing the deadly chemical in the very same State where more than 2,000 families are victims of aerial spraying of the deadly chemical at Government-owned plantation.
Originally started in 1957, Endosulfan Technical Plant was put up in HIL in 1980. The production capacity of the plant is 1,600 MT per annum, whereas the overall production in the world is around 12,800 MT per annum. Apart from the plant in Kochi, HIL has plants in Punjab and Maharashtra.
K K Dhar, deputy general manager of HIL, Kochi, said that endosulfan is being produced in the company. “There is no ban on production. There is no directive from Government regarding it. We strictly prohibit sale of endosulfan within the State. It is being used in other States. We are concentrating more on exports,” he said.
Endosulfan is mainly exported to Europe, South America, Gulf and South East Asia and South Africa.
Asked on the environmental impacts on the area, he said that they are strictly following the norms.
However, according to the study of Greenpeace International in 1999, the activities at the HIL plant in Kochi had resulted in substantial contamination of water bodies in the area with DDT, endosulfan and other hazardous organochlorine chemicals and has caused release of many of these chemicals into the environment.
India’s opposition to the Stockholm Convention is clear from the fact that it is the major producer of endosulfan.
Apart from Government-owned HIL, Excel Crop Care and Coromandal Fertilizers are other producers.
The three are producing 4,500 tonnes annually for domestic use and another 4,000 tonnes for export.
Endosulfan was banned following a High Court directive in 2002.
Since, State Government has no role in the Insecticide Act, it has to remain a mute spectator of Union Government’s autocratic stand.
Though the lives of thousands in Kasargod have been affected and study of National Institute of Occupational Health (NIOH) point to the ill-effects of endosulfan, the Union Government is still adamant on its stand that use of endosulfan have no link with the lives of hundred in Kasargod.
THIRUVANATHAPURAM: Union Minister K V Thomas’ pro-endosulfan speech is just a tip of the iceberg. It shows a smaller part of the Union Government’s policy of making profit by gambling the lives of common people.
A Government of India enterprise itself is producing endosulfan in Kerala for the past three decades though it is not known much to others.
The Government’s indifferent attitude towards the endosulfan-hit State is reflected in the factory standing tall at Udyogamandal in Kochi.
With an excuse that endosulfan ban has limited its use, Hindustan Insecticides Limited (HIL), a Government of India enterprise, under Ministry of Chemicals and Fertilizers, has been producing the deadly chemical in the very same State where more than 2,000 families are victims of aerial spraying of the deadly chemical at Government-owned plantation.
Originally started in 1957, Endosulfan Technical Plant was put up in HIL in 1980. The production capacity of the plant is 1,600 MT per annum, whereas the overall production in the world is around 12,800 MT per annum. Apart from the plant in Kochi, HIL has plants in Punjab and Maharashtra.
K K Dhar, deputy general manager of HIL, Kochi, said that endosulfan is being produced in the company. “There is no ban on production. There is no directive from Government regarding it. We strictly prohibit sale of endosulfan within the State. It is being used in other States. We are concentrating more on exports,” he said.
Endosulfan is mainly exported to Europe, South America, Gulf and South East Asia and South Africa.
Asked on the environmental impacts on the area, he said that they are strictly following the norms.
However, according to the study of Greenpeace International in 1999, the activities at the HIL plant in Kochi had resulted in substantial contamination of water bodies in the area with DDT, endosulfan and other hazardous organochlorine chemicals and has caused release of many of these chemicals into the environment.
India’s opposition to the Stockholm Convention is clear from the fact that it is the major producer of endosulfan.
Apart from Government-owned HIL, Excel Crop Care and Coromandal Fertilizers are other producers.
The three are producing 4,500 tonnes annually for domestic use and another 4,000 tonnes for export.
Endosulfan was banned following a High Court directive in 2002.
Since, State Government has no role in the Insecticide Act, it has to remain a mute spectator of Union Government’s autocratic stand.
Though the lives of thousands in Kasargod have been affected and study of National Institute of Occupational Health (NIOH) point to the ill-effects of endosulfan, the Union Government is still adamant on its stand that use of endosulfan have no link with the lives of hundred in Kasargod.
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