Kin of 7 Cyclone Phyan-hit fishers get death certificates

MADURAI: After a long wait, the aggrieved families of seven fishermen, who were lost in Cyclone Phyan, which struck Kanniyakumari coast in November 2009, received the death certificates issued by authorities at the Collectorate in Nagercoil on Tuesday.

The relatives of the victims, including Jimmi Kuttan, Homans, Mariya Rajan, Dasan, Sesadimai, Anish and Stalin received the death certificates. The victims belonged to the Thoothoor region.

They thanked Justin Antony, president, International Fishermen Development Trust (INFIDET) for his role in providing death certificates, which could be useful to claim compensation for the cyclone victims.

Anto, son of S Dasan, one of the cyclone victims, said Antony took the issue over the last 15 years to seek government’s attention for providing compensation to the victims. He also requested the government to provide adequate compensation of Rs 20 lakh to each of the victim’s family like how it’s provided to the victims of Cyclone Ockhi in 2017 and also offer permanent government jobs to the victims’ kin.

Anto said his father Dasan was among 10 of the mechanised fishing boat’s crew that ventured into sea off Alikal coast in Kerala on the fateful day.

Only three fishermen returned to the shore and after two days of search, his family lost hope that Dasan would come alive.

Not only compensation now with the death certificate insurance benefits could also be claimed.