The Kerala Government on Sunday decided to extend the search for the fishermen who had gone missing in Arabian Sea in Cyclone Ockhi up to the Goa coast and requested the State’s boat owners to make available the services of 200 boats for this. The Government is also planning to make a presentation on the extent of the Ockhi tragedy before Prime Minister Narendra Modi during his visit to the cyclone-affected region on Tuesday.
As per the decision taken at a meeting Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan held with representatives of boat owners and fishermen in Thiruvananthapuram, the search operations will now be held in a stretch of about 400 nautical miles of sea between Munambam near Kochi and Goa on the basis of reports that bodies of fishermen could have been trapped in this zone.
The discussions between the Government and representatives of various sectors related to fishing was held in the context of increasing demand for intensifying search operations as many fishermen had not returned even 18 days after the cyclone. Ministers Kadakampally Surendran and E Chandrasekharan, Chief Secretary KM Abraham and others attended the meeting.
“What is apparent is that we will have to scour the sea for the missing fishermen. The Marine Enforcement will lead the operation. Its crafts and (private) fishing boats will participate in the search,” Pinarayi Vijayan told newsmen after the meeting. He added that the Chief Secretary had been instructed to prepare a detailed plan for this.
Though most of the fishermen who had gone missing in the cyclone were from southern districts, especially Thiruvananthapuram, many bodies have so far been found from the sea off the North Kerala coast and fishermen say that this could be due to the northward current. Boat owners have promised all possible assistance in the search.
Meanwhile, the Government is planning to make a presentation using statistical details and images on the extent of the Ockhi tragedy’ to Prime Minister Narendra Modi when he arrives in the State on Tuesday. He is expected to visit some of the cyclone-affected areas of lakshadweep and Tamil Nadu but reports suggested that he may not visit Kerala’s Ockhi-hit places.
late reports on Sunday said that Modi might not visit the Ockhi-affected fishing hamlets in Kerala due to security reasons but would meet representatives of fishermen at Raj Bhavan in the State capital, Thiruvananthapuram. The Government’s plan is to make the presentation to the Prime Minister at Raj Bhavan.
But it is not yet certain whether Modi, who is expected to spend only an hour in the State capital, will get the time to sit through the presentation during his flash visit. The Chief Secretary had informed the PMO about the plan to make a presentation to Modi but no favourable response had come from there till late Sunday evening.
The Government’s objective is to convince the Prime Minister that the State has suffered losses amounting to more than Rs 2,000 crore in the cyclone and that the Centre should compensate this. The State Government has already sought a Central assistance of Rs 1,834 crore to meet the emergency arising out of Cyclone Ockhi.
As per reports, the Prime Minister will fly to Agatti island in lakshadweep to visit the Ockhi-hit regions there on Tuesday morning. He would arrive in Thiruvananthapuram from lakshadweep by afternoon and leave for Kanyakumari in Tamil Nadu to visit the cyclone-affected areas there and would return to Thiruvananthapuram by Tuesday evening.
Meanwhile, a pastoral letter issued by Archbishop M Soosapakiyam of the Kerala latin Catholic Church asked the faithful to maintain absolute transparency about the cyclone rehabilitation fund the Church, to which a large number of fishermen from Thiruvananthapuram belonged, would be mobilizing by ensuring that not even “a single paisa” of it leaked out.
Stating that the coastal area of Kerala presently was a sea of grief, the letter asked the believers not to allow anybody to cash in on the situation. The Church will observe December 29, the 30th days since the cyclone, as a memorial day for the fishermen who were killed or were missing in the cyclone with a special Mass and prayers.