They have accused the State government of having failed to fulfil its assurances on an enhanced relief and rehabilitation package in a time-bound manner.
Most of the assurances by successive governments have remained on paper, driving the victims and their families to frustration, said office-bearers of the Kasaragod People's Forum and leading cultural activists, addressing the mothers of the victims as the strike entered the 10th day on Sunday.
The agitation is sponsored by the Endosulfan Satyagraha Samithi. It was decided at a meeting to launch a massive campaign on May 3 and submit a detailed memorandum enlisting the unfulfilled promises to Chief Minister Oommen Chandy during his visit here on May 10, said forum president M. K. Radhakrishnan, presiding over the fast near the collectorate premises here on Sunday.
Forum activists V. Gopinathan, V.V. Prabhakaran, V.D. Joseph, M. Padmakshan, E. Chandrasekharan Nair, besides social and cultural activists Subaida Neeleswaram, Narayanan Periya, among others, addressed the fasting mothers.
The Democratic Youth Federation of India will observe a day-long hartal on May 5 in areas falling under the worst affected 11 panchayat, where the victims are leading a life of agony and trauma in the aftermath of indiscriminate aerial spraying of endosulfan in the cashew estates of the State-owned Plantation Corporation of Kerala.
Meanwhile, a meeting of the Kerala Sasthra Sahitya Parishath Kasaragod district unit at Vellikoth in Kanhangad on Sunday expressed solidarity with the mothers' agitation, and demanded that the State government initiate steps to solve the problems faced by their families.
In a resolution at the close of the two-day meeting, the parishath urged the government to meet the mothers' demands. Implementation of relief and rehabilitation packages should get top priority.
The parishath criticised the Health Ministry's stand of overruling a study done by the Government Medical College, Kozhikode, on the health hazards posed by endosulfan.
The study report had been submitted before the Supreme Court.
The organisation demanded that the huge stock of endosulfan kept in the godowns of the Plantation Corporation of Kerala in the district be destroyed. Steps should be taken to promote organic farming to supplement the efforts of the Central Plantation Crops Research Institute and the Krishi Vigyan Kendra. It demanded that the district administration conserve rivers with the participation of people to address water scarcity.
T.K. Devarajan was elected president of the parishath's district unit and B.S. Babu Secretary.
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