After spot study in Kumari, Nirmala Sitharaman says all resources on rescue ops

A total of 357 fishermen, including 71 from Tamil Nadu, stranded in sea due to Cyclone Ockhi, have been rescued by defence force personnel, she said. A photograph on her official Twitter handle showed her inside a helicopter reviewing the search and rescue operations in Tamil Nadu’s Kanniyakumari.

 “An update on the search and rescue efforts being done by the Indian Navy, Coast Guard and Air Force to save the lives of fishermen affected by #CycloneOckhi: 357 fishermen have been saved as of 10 am today,” she wrote on her official Twitter handle.

The Defence Minister who visited Kerala earlier, reached Kanniyakumari late in the evening and interacted with Deputy Chief Minister O Panneerselvam who was also visiting the cyclone-hit region. She also held a review meeting with other senior officials and visited Neerodi fishermen’s village and interacted with family members. She spoke to them at length about the rescue operations undertaken by the government and assured them that all is being done to rescue the stranded fishermen. Sitharaman is expected to return to Kerala on Monday and review the ongoing rescue operations.

Chief Minister Edappadi K Palaniswami said in Coimbatore that work to rescue fishermen was on in full swing with the Air Force, Navy and Coast Guard deploying aircraft and ships.

The death toll in rain-related incidents in Kerala rose to 19 even as more than 600 fishermen, stranded at sea off the state’s coast, were rescued, official sources said on Sunday. The very severe cyclonic storm ‘Ockhi’ lay centred over east central and south east central Arabian Sea, they said. An IMD bulletin said ‘Ockhi’ has moved further north-northwestwards with a speed of 12 kmph during the past six hours and lay centred about 440 km west-northwest of Amin Divi, 870 km south-south west of Mumbai and 1,070 km south-south west of Surat.

A fresh spell of rainfall is expected to lash north Tamil Nadu as the well-marked low pressure area over the south Andaman Sea is likely to turn into a depression in the next 24 hours and a deep depression in the subsequent 48 hours, the Met office said.

The Centre on Sunday said Cyclone Ockhi, which wrecked havoc in Kerala, Tamil Nadu and Lakshadweep, cannot be declared a national calamity as there is no such scheme, but assured all necessary assistance to tackle the situation. Speaking to reporters after attending a high-level meeting chaired by Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan at the Secretariat here, Union Minister Alphons Kannanthanam said the Centre has already given necessary relief funds to the state government.”We have received a memorandum from the state government requesting to declare Cyclone Ockhi as a national calamity. But, there is no such scheme for the Centre to do the same,” he said.

According to the Defence Department sources, since November 30, defence forces have rescued 71 persons, mostly fishermen from Tamil Nadu, 250 from Kerala and around 38 from Lakshadweep and Minicoy islands. Till Sunday morning, around 89 boats with 1,154 fishermen, mostly from Kerala and Tamil Nadu, have taken shelter in various ports of Karnataka, Maharashtra, Goa and Lakshadweep, a Ministry tweet stated. Maharashtra Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis said 28 more boats, carrying 321 fishermen, which were caught in rough seas due to Ockhi, have safely reached Maharashtra’s Ratnagiri coast. Of these, 23 are from TN, three from Kerala and two from Karnataka, he said.