- President of Human Rights Protection Foundation (HRPF) told more than 300 people affected by spraying of the insecticide endosulfan have not received their monthly pensions
- Around 27 villages in Kundapur taluk in Udupi district complained about issues related to pension connected to relief and smart cards
- The information was reported to the High Court of Karnataka during Ms.Vaishali Hegde, amicus curiae appointed by the court during her 10 days visit to Kundapur
- The health department has promised to release the pension and the department has given in writing to the High Court that the pension will be paid to the affected before 10th of every month
- HRPF volunteers have visited the people and learnt from them that most of them have received pension till February 2014 and few others have received pensions for two months and the volunteers were unable to find people who had received pension since February 2014 to July 2014
- According to an agreement between the Kasturba Hospital and the Health Department that they would provide free treatment to endosulfan victims who have smart cards but most of them complained that they did not even get smart cards
- People with disabilities below 25% are not entitled for any pension as per the orders from the High Court
- Those who are disabled above 25% to 60% they receive Rs.1500 and above 60% they receive Rs.3000 per month, there were confusion among the revenue and health department over the pension money
- Spraying endosulfan began in 1980 and officials were under the impression that only those who were born after 1980 were affected by spraying of endosulfan and entitled to get compensation which is true but a few senior citizens were affected as well with deadly diseases
- Health department has received a list of 54 villages from the Forest department where endosulfan has been sprayed and both the revenue and health department were considering the affected persons from these villages only
- The volunteers from the HRPF found that there were other villages who were affected because of endosulfan
- Read at: http://www.thehindu.com/todays-paper/endosulfan-victims-not-getting-monthly-pension/article6306447.ece