The Pioneer 11.12.2010
Endosulfan: Kerala’s Plantation Corp MD removedVR Jayaraj | Thiruvananthapuram
The Kerala Government on Friday removed NK Manoj as managing director of the Plantation Corporation of Kerala (PCK) for filing an affidavit in the Kerala High Court defending the use of Endosulfan in Kasaragod even as a report said that the PCK affidavit was prepared by a lawyer who was earlier counsel for Endosulfan manufacturers.
Agriculture Minister Mullakkara Ratnakaran, who signed the order removing Manoj as PCK’s MD on Friday morning, told newsmen that the corporation would now seek legal advice on whether the option of withdrawing the affidavit was available. If this was not possible, the PCK would amend the affidavit submitted in the court, he said.
In the affidavit filed on Thursday, the corporation had said that the PCK did not have the responsibility for paying compensation to the victims of Endosulfan in Kasaragod district. More than 400 people have died and over 9,000 have contracted mysterious diseases due to the aerial spraying of Endosulfan in the PCK’s cashew estates in Kasaragod district since 1980.
The affidavit had justified the PCK’s use of Endosulfan in Kasaragod saying that the pesticide was legally registered. It said that the decision to spray Endosulfan aerially was not PCK’s own but experts had advised it. It also requested the court to reject the demand for the constitution of a tribunal to make the PCK pay compensation to the victims.
Minister Ratnakaran told newsmen that Manoj had on Thursday itself given a letter to the Government requesting that he be removed as the corporation’s MD. Subair Khan, MD of the Kerala Land Development Corporation, would hold the charge of the PCK now.
The affidavit justifying the use of Endosulfan had caused huge embarrassment to the Government and the CPI whose Ministers were holding the two departments – Agriculture and Forest and Environment – directly connected with the Endosulfan issue.
A report on Friday said that the affidavit of the PCK was prepared, examined and cleared by lawyer TM Muhammad Yuseff of Yuseff and Aisha Associates of Kochi, who had appeared in the court for Endosulfan manufacturers in 2001 to challenge the State Government’s ban on the pesticide.
According to a TV channel, Yuseff, who had in 2002 argued that the ban would affect the reputation of Endosulfan and its manufacturers internationally, was former Additional Advocate General and a member of the CPI. The Agriculture portfolio of the State is being handled by CPI’s Minister Mullakkara Ratnakaran.
Meanwhile, a march taken out by the BJP to the office of the Plantation Corporation at Perla, Kasaragod on Friday ended in tension. The march was organized to demand total ban on Endosulfan and proper compensation to the victims of the pesticide in Kasaragod and to protest against the PCK’s affidavit.
Trouble started after police blocked the marchers who tried to enter into the office of the corporation. As the protest turned intense, the police used teargas to disperse the marchers. Satheesh of Kumbala and several other BJP workers suffered injuries in the police lathi-charge.
Two head-constables of the Badiyadukka police station were reportedly injured in the stone-pelting by BJP activists. The police arrested several leaders and workers of the BJP including the party’s district general secretary K Sreekanth.
