With no stipend, miseries of endo victims are endless

The tough life of Rajeevi Poojary, mother of three children who are victims of endosulfan poisoning, has been made worse by ‘government officials’.

“My three children, who are victims of endosulfan poisoning, are being denied nutritious food, medicines and punished for no fault of theirs by government officials,’’ Rajeevi from Buderiya near Alankaru village in Kadaba taluk has stated in her letter to member secretary of District Legal Service Authority (DLSA).

The poverty-stricken family was further shattered when the district administration failed to deposit the monthly stipend of Rs 3,000 in the accounts of Rajeevi’s children--Dinesh, Dinaker and Vidya for the past four months.

Rajeevi made many trips to the offices of tahasildar and assitant commissioner (Puttur) but the stipend is yet to be released to her children.

When her pleas for releasing the stipend, sanctioned to her children with 100% disability since 2014, did not receive any response she as a final option wrote a letter to the DLSA on Monday.

Unfortunately, the DLSA member secretary’s previous letters to Dakshina Kannada deputy commissioner on releasing the stipend has been gathering dust.

In June 2019, DLSA member secretary, responding to a complaint from one Yamuna of Kadeshivalaya in Bantwal taluk, wrote to deputy commissioner on releasing stipend to endosulfan victims Mithun and Trupthi.

Yamuna said her two children were declared as endosulfan victims in 2017 and the stipend was released for a few months in 2018. However, Yamuna’s hopes that the deputy commissioner will respond to a senior judge’s letter and facilitate the release of stipend since 2019, came crashing down.

Yamuna has written a second letter to the DLSA stating that even after six months deputy commissioner had not responded to the letter.

Krishnappa Gowda, a daily wager in Balnadu village in Puttur taluk, said that experts had declared his son Gagan as endosulfan victim (with 25% disability) at a camp.

“The nine-year-old Gagan has a blue-coloured smart card (PUP50998) and yet we are forced to pledge gold in order to clear the hospital bills.
As Gagan suffers from malnutrition and juvenile diabetes, we are forced to buy three
insulin vials per day,’’ Gowda said. Gowda’s letters to the DLSA, district administration and district health officer on providing medical facilities to Gagan, who is forced to attend classes once a week, has not received any response.

RTI activist Sanjeeva Kabaka rues that the endosulfan sufferers are treated as beggars by government officials.

Sajuddin of District Endosulfan Cell admitted that stipend was not deposited in banks due to ‘K2 Updation (treasury)’.

Kabaka said officials have been blaming K2 updation for not issuing stipend to over 360 endosulfan victims in the district since August 2018.

Govt’s claims

Directorate of Health and Family Welfare Services claimed to disbursing stipend to 6,089 out of the total 6,914 endosulfan victims in Dakshina Kannada, Udupi and Uttara Kannada districts.