The Kerala Government on Friday assured an all-party meeting that it would take steps to provide employment to one of the dependents of each of those killed in Cyclone Ockhi even as latin Catholic Church warned that the affected fishermen might launch an intense agitation against the Government if it did not take immediate and effective steps to bring ashore all the fishermen trapped in the cyclone-churned Arabian Sea.
The Government told the meeting that each cyclone-affected family would be given a weekly assistance of Rs 2,000 but this would be a temporary arrangement. This replaces the Government’s earlier decision to give a daily assistance of Rs 60 each for mature members and Rs 45 to minors of affected families. Fisheries Minister J Mercikutty Amma said, “We will do everything we can to provide livelihood to them.”
The meeting, held in Thiruvananthapuram, decided to seek a special package from the Centre to meet the emergencies brought about by Cyclone Ockhi. The decision is to seek a package equivalent to the one that followed the tsunami of 2004. Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan is expected to meet Union Home Minister Rajnath Singh on Saturday in this regard.
The meeting could not take a clear decision on the issue of enhancing the Rs 20 lakh assistance announced by the Government earlier for families of those killed in the cyclone to Rs 25 lakh. However, the Government would take a decision on this after looking at the funds available with the Fishermen’s Welfare Fund and other sources.
Another decision taken at the all-party meeting was to install direction-finding and navigation systems on boats going into the sea for fishing. The project which has the cooperation of the ISRO is already on but it would be expedited in the context of the cyclone. The first phase of the project should be completed by January, the meeting decided.
A decision was also taken to expedite the efforts for constructing and strengthening sea walls and breakwaters in the context of the understanding that lack or inadequacy of these had caused widespread problems in coastal villages during and after the cyclone. All these decisions will come into force once the Cabinet gives its approval.
Though the Government had announced a comprehensive relief and rehabilitation package for the victims of the cyclone on Wednesday, it was forced to revise it following intense protests from the fishing community which had suffered the maximum brunt of the cyclone and the latin Catholic Church, which is highly influential among the fishermen.
After it became obvious that the latin Catholic Church, to which a large section of fishermen in South Kerala belong, two Ministers met its top clergy before the all-party meeting and promised to honour their demands, which included changes to the relief package announced earlier and immediate steps for rescuing all the fishermen trapped in the sea.
After a meeting of the priests on the issue on Friday evening, Eugene H Pereira, Vicar General of the Church’s Thiruvananthapuram Archdiocese, told newsmen that the fishermen would launch an intense agitation against the Government if there were not proper, immediate and effective steps to bring back all the fishermen trapped in the sea.
“The Government machinery has been a failure right from the start. Our fishermen have been trapped in the sea for the past nine days. Many other fishermen brothers have been stranded in other places. All of them should be brought back,” he said, adding that 287 fishermen were yet to be rescued from the sea but the Government does not agree to this estimate.
The Navy, which has been carrying out a massive rescue operation in the sea jointly with Air Force and Coast Guard, found 180 fishermen off the lakshadweep coast on Friday. However, they informed the Navy that they wanted to go on with the job as the sea had become calm. With the recovery of four bodies on Thursday, the toll in the cyclone in Kerala went up to 38.