Normalcy yet to return to rural Kanniyakumari

Official sources said that the priority is to restore electricity in the urban areas, while the restoration works in the rural areas will be completed in the next two days. Also, holiday has been declared for schools in the districts on Tuesday and Wednesday, by the time the restoration works are expected to be over.

Cyclone Ockhi, which came close to Kanniyakumari coast on Wednesday night, wreaked havoc in the district and the normal life was thrown out of gear. Thousands of trees that fell on the road damaged the electricity poles. The roads too were blocked, and the mobile phone towers were damaged.

According to government officials, more than 4,000 TNEB employees are working round the clock to restore supply in the district.

Bibin Inbakumar, an activist from Colachel village, said that though the government was claiming that TNEB workers are involved in restoring power supply and more than 60 percentage works were over, none of the coastal hamlets have received power in the last four days.

Another problem associated with the power supply is drinking water shortage.

With no power supply, the drinking water supply is only made through water cans and some of the volunteer groups have reached rural areas to supply drinking water to the villagers.

As far as the mobile phone network is concerned, it has been restored in a majority of the areas and there is no problem of connectivity. However, due to shortage in power supply, communication could not be restored completely.

Justin Antony, Founder President, International Fishermen Development Trust, said that the cyclone Ockhi should be declared as a national disaster and the absence of a National Disaster Management Centre (NDMC) at coastal villages is one of the main reasons that there is problem in providing basic amenities for people immediately after the cyclone.

So, he had requested Defence Minister Nirmala Sitharaman to set up an NDMC at Thoothur and she too had accepted his proposal, said Justin.