Thiruvananthapuram: Ockhi victims have contradicted claims of fisheries minister J. Mercykutty Amma. They said there was a lack of coordination on rehabilitation and the government should have appointed a special officer for that. There are 143 who lost their lives or were missing in the Ockhi. Of them, 52 died while 91 went missing.
An amount of Rs 28.6 lakh has been spent from the chief minister’s distress relief fund for providing Rs 20 lakh. Fr Eugene Parera, the spokesperson of the Latin Catholic Church, said the problem was that FIRs were needed for providing compensation for those who were missing in Ockhi. “This process became time-consuming as multiple authorities were overseeing it,” Fr Parera told DC.
“One of the problems was related to the rehabilitation of those who had to stay back due to physical and mental trauma. There has not been a proper rehabilitation process for these fishermen.”
As per records, 83 men had lost their fishing gear completely and 23 partially. However, only 64 of them got compensation till now, said Fr Parera. Though the state government had promised jobs for wives whose husbands either had died or went missing, the reality was that they were on a daily wage basis.
One of the demands was to make the rescue operations easier by bringing the control of defence forces under the chief minister during such times. During Ockhi a lot of time had lost in the way of coordinating with the defence forces. If the authority of defence officials engaged in relief operations were shifted to the state, it would have been done at a speedier pace, said Fr Parera.
The warning system was still not efficient as evident from the recent floods and Gaja cyclone.
One of our demands after the Ockhi was to put in place a more efficient warning system. The satellites of the ISRO should be utilised for the purpose, said Fr Parera.
