Kerala’s influential latin Catholic Church seems to be preparing to launch intense protests against the State Government over issues like utilisation of Cyclone Ockhi relief funds, reservation for weaker sections of forward communities and police action against pilgrims bound for Kurisumala (Mount of The Cross) in Bonacaud, Thiruvananthapuram on January 5.
A resolution presented at the 31st general assembly of the Kerala Regional latin Catholic Council (KRlCC) reminded the Government of the need of clear goal and direction in the utilisation of the cyclone Ockhi relief funds. It called for clear rules for ensuring that mistakes like the diversion of the tsunami fund were not repeated.
The council’s criticism against the Government over the cyclone relief fund came in the context of the controversy that Rs 8 lakh was allocated from the State Disaster Response Fund for a helicopter trip undertaken by Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan last month. The Government had later corrected the mistake by cancelling an order issued in this regard.
According to the Church, the Government’s recent decision to provide ten percent job quota (applicable presently to the five Devaswom Boards only) for the economically backward sections among the forward Hindu communities was against the meaning given to the concept of reservation by the sculptors of Constitution. The council is planning to launch protests against the move in cooperation with other like-minded backward communities.
The Church demanded continuance of the right for worship for the believers at Kurisumala in Bonacaud where the police had forcefully prevented thousands of pilgrims from moving to the site of a cross destroyed last year. The resolution demanded institution of a judicial panel to probe the police action and cancellation of the ‘fabricated cases’ against believers.
The Church, to which a large number of fishermen in Thiruvananthapuram and Kanyakumari districts belong, said that 324 fishermen, who had gone to sea for fishing just before Cyclone Ockhi hit the coasts of the State and Tamil Nadu on November 30 and were believed to have been trapped in the sea, were yet to the return to the shore.
As per the figures of fishermen missing in Cyclone Ockhi drawn up by the Church, 111 of them were from Thiruvananthapuram district.
It said 213 fishermen who had gone to sea from Thoothoor, Kolachel and other coastal villages in Tamil Nadu were yet to be found.
Senior priests of the Church said that they had given detailed information on the missing fishermen to the Government last week itself but it had not been able to end the confusions in its own estimates.