‘950 fishermen yet to return’

According to the state government more than 2,300 fishermen have been rescued safely and are made to settle in various places in the western coast. On Tuesday morning 21 fishermen who were left stranded close to Kerala coast were rescued and were taken to Kanniyakumari. Another boat with four fishermen had also been rescued near Suheli island along Kavaratti. 

Justin Antony, Founding President, International Fishermen Development Trust (INFIDET), said, “Still there is no information about 950 fishermen in 75 mechanised boats and three plywood boats. Though GPS location of the boats had been handed over to the authorities, the rescue operation is not active.” 

DMK working president MK Stalin on Tuesday alleged discrepancies and confusion in the headcount of missing as well as fishermen who returned to the coast who were stranded in the sea in the aftermath of cyclone Ockhi and urged the state government to insist the Centre to declare the cyclone as a national disaster. 

While, state minister Jayakumar said about 2,124 fishermen were stranded in the sea, deputy CM O Panneerselvam said 2,384 fishermen were missing. But, the Chief Minister had stated that 2,570 fishermen, who were stranded, had been rescued. Above all this, Union Defence minister Nirmala Sitharaman during her visit had said about thousand fishermen were missing, Stalin noted. 

Already the Kerala government had urged the Union government to declare cyclone Ockhi as a national disaster and a similar plea should be made by Palaniswami. The funds received through such a declaration could be used for relief works, he added.