Thiruvananthapuram, May 27 (IANS) The Kerala government Friday cancelled the licence given to Kochi-based central government-run Hindustan Insecticides Limited (HIL) to manufacture pesticide endosulfan, blamed for almost 500 deaths in the state since 1995.

 
 Speaking to reporters here, Health Minister Adoor Prakash said the decision was taken in consultations that Chief Minister Oommen Chandy had with representatives of HIL and the Kerala State Pollution Control Board. 
 
 "The licence has been cancelled only for the manufacture of endosulfan, hence the company can engage in producing other products, which they are doing now," said Prakash.
 
 He also said that the HIL has been asked to clear, within seven months, all the waste that has accumulated on their factory site during the manufacture of endosulfan.
 
 About 500 deaths since 1995 in 11 villages in Kasargode district have been officially acknowledged as related to the spraying of endosulfan, whose use on the estates of state-owned Plantation Corporation of Kerala in Kasargode district began in the early 1970s and continued till 2001.
 
 Unofficial estimates put the deaths since the late 1970s to around 4,000. 
 
 Following a series of deaths in the past six months in Kasargode district and attributed to effects of endusulfan, there was a huge public outcry. The then Left Democratic Front chief minister V.S. Achuthanandan went on a day-long fast here, soon after the April 13 assembly elections, to seek a ban on the pesticide.
 
 Among the first decisions of the Chandy government, after assuming office last week, was to immediately pay out compensation to these victims and also announce the setting up of a super speciality hospital in the district to help the victims.