Government failed to alert fishermen in time: Stalin

After the devastations by Ockhi many of the politicians, including State and Central ministers visited Kanniyakumari and inspected the cyclone hit places. Following them, Stalin visited many of the coastal hamlets in the district.

He visited Killiyur and Neerody and heard the grievances of the fishermen. Then he went to Ilavanvalai near Vilavankodu and several other villages near Padmanabapuram to inquire about losses incurred by farmers and also inspected the rubber and plantain trees that were damaged in the cyclone.

At Manavalakurichi, Stalin told to mediapersons that Kanniyakumari district had witnessed one of the worst disasters in the past 100 years.

Even during the Tsunami in 2004, Kanniyakumari district did not witness such a large scale of devastation. Considering this, the State and Central governments should declare Kanniyakumari as disasterhit district.

He also blamed the government for not providing proper cyclone warning to the fishermen at the right time.

Though the state government claims that cyclone warning was issued on November 29, no such warnings reached the fishermen. Fishermen representatives claim that more than 1000 fishermen are yet to return to Tamil Nadu. However, government is trying to downplay the incident and yet to provide the exact number of missing fishermen.

While interacting with the protesting fishermen at Neerody, Stalin said that he would take all steps beyond his capacity as leader of opposition and would urge the State and Central governments to speed up the relief operations. He also demanded the government to deploy more personnel to bring back the stranded fishermen to coast.

Stalin also interacted with Kanniyakumari Collector Sajjan Singh R Chavan. He then said that the rescue measures taken up by the government are not satisfactory.