Kerala asks Centre to ban use of endosulfan

Thiruvananthapuram, Nov 5 (UNI) Kerala today urged the Centre to take immediate steps to ban the use of endosulfan pesticide in the country.

Briefing reporters after a Cabinet meeting, Chief Minister V S Achuthanandan said it was quite ''objectionable'' the stand taken by the Union Government at the Rotterdam Convention that the killer pesticide should not be banned.

Though all other countries had unanimously demanded the ban of endosulfan at the Rotterdam Convention in Rome, organised by the World Health Organisation last month, India's demand was not to ban the pesticide, he said and added that ''the stand is quite nonsense and objectionable.'' In the wake of reports and findings that hundreds of people had died and thousands became handicapped and suffered from various illness in the northern districts of the state, the state government had banned the use of the killer pesticide in 2001 in the state, he said and urged the Centre to follow the state government's policy in this regard.

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