Company trying to avert a shutdown over non-compliance of PCB norms Company chief to meet PCB chairman tomorrow ‘Immediate shutdown not technically feasible' The Hindustan Insecticides Limited (HIL) unit here, which has been slapped with a closure notice by the Kerala State Pollution Control Board (PCB), is hopeful of averting a shutdown over the deficits in complying with the board's pollution control norms. K.K. Dhar, general manager of the public-sector unit which manufactures endosulfan...

We hear that endosulfan is banned globally and it is against Indian interests and that the European Union and the corporates are behind it. India is a big country and we do not know what happens in one area of the country or how New Delhi is responding to that. So let me try to walk you on this issue. I went to Kasargod as team member of Thanal, a...

Until now, endosulfan was the scourge of Dakshina Kannada. Now, even as a debate rages over a ban on this chemical pesticide, fresh cases are surfacing in Uttara Kannada district. At least 10 cases have emerged in Bhatkal. Many organizations are demanding case studies to check whether the people of Belke, Gorate, Yalvadikavur and other villages in Bhatkal have been affected by the excessive use of endosulfan. The use of this pesticide...

Representatives from 127 governments have agreed to add endosulfan to the United Nations' list of persistent organic pollutants to be eliminated worldwide. The action puts the widely-used pesticide on track for elimination from the global market by 2012. The decision was among more than 30 measures taken by Parties to the Stockholm Convention on Persistent Organic Pollutants to strengthen global action against POPs at their meeting in Geneva last week. The...

To restore the lost pride in the endosulfan issue, the Congress is planning to come up with a comprehensive rehabilitation package for the endosulfan victims of Kasargod when the UDF comes to power. The top leadership of the party in the state is of the view that the Stockholm Convention and the Central Government’s stand on the issue did not give due importance to the rehabilitation package and also into the...