Parents of endosulfan victims feel let down by DC

Parents and caretakers of endosulfan victims in Kokkada, Belthangady taluk, reacted with shock on learning that Deputy Commissioner Sasikanth Senthil resigned on Friday.

“He had asked us to come to his office on Saturday and promised to redress our grievance before going on leave,” the parents told DH on conditions of anonymity.

A fortnight ago, the parents and caretakers had met Senthil at his office.

The meeting was third in the series and the parents, led by Kokkada Endo Virodhi Horata Samithi convenor Sreedhar Gowda K, had submitted a memorandum urging the deputy commissioner to cancel the contract of the running daycare centre at Kokkada, awarded to Seon Ashram Trust.

The parents had accused the Seon Ashram Trust of ill-treating children at the daycare centres.

“The daycare centres should be run by the Social Welfare Department, as recommended by the District Health and Family Welfare Department in a report submitted to the principal secretary on October 18, 2014,” Sridhar Gowda had urged the officer.

Senthil, accepting the memorandum, had said that he would direct the Puttur assistant commissioner to visit the daycare centre at Kokkada and submit a report. “Based on the report, I will take decisive action,” he had promised.

“As H K Krishnamurthy, Puttur assistant commissioner had submitted the report, we were confident that our suffering had ended,” a mother of a victim told DH.

Sridhar Gowda said he was taken aback by the sudden development. “We will now have to wait and see before mounting pressure on the district administration to implement our demands,” he added.