THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: Congress president-elect Rahul Gandhi, who arrived on a whirlwind tour to the state on Thursday, was given a rousing reception on his maiden visit here after being chosen the party’s supremo. Reaching out to the fishers at Poonthura and Vizhinjam coast, mourning the scores of lives claimed by the Ockhi super storm as well as those still remaining unaccounted for, he said a separate Fisheries Ministry at the Centre to look after the interests of fisher folk is the need of the hour.
Rahul, while tendering an unreserved apology for the delay in visiting the Ockhi-hit areas, said the plight of fishermen is akin to those of the farming community.
“We’ve to build a better system to issue warnings for fishermen going out to the sea. The fishers and the farmers, both of whom, are going through tough times. There is an Agriculture Ministry to take up the issues concerning farmers. Similarly, it’s time to set up a Fisheries Ministry to look after the interests of fisher folk, to protect them,” he said to thundering ovation from the assembled crowd.
Rahul brought up the issue also at Vizhinjam and at both places walked up to bereaved fishermen. He also tried to assauge the grief of several sobbing women who had lost their sons to Ockhi’s fury. A visibly moved Congress chief spent nearly 30 minutes each at both the places before moving to the Ockhi- hit Kuzhithurai coast in Tamilnadu. Earlier, Rahul started his address at Poonthura and Vizhinjam by profusely apologising for coming down here a tad late after the devastation wrought by Ockhi.
“I had a pre-scheduled programme in Gujarat,with regard to the Assembly elections there. Though I was not here physically,I was here in spirit and soul,’’ he said as the crowd roared in approval. “My respect and condolences for those who had passed away.We have to see to it the missing are indeed brought back. One cannot replace what you’ve lost,but I offer all help to make things comfortable.“Some have lost their fathers,brothers and sons. The value of the loss is unlimited. Whatever help needs to be done, it will be done,’’ he promised.
Welcoming RaGa to the midst of the distressed coastal people, the priests of St Thomas Church,Poonthura and St Mary’s Church had submitted a memorandum with a charter of demands seeking to declare Cyclone Ockhi as a national disaster, fast-tracking the efforts to track down the missing and dead fishermen, setting up an effective warning and security system and a Fisheries Ministry at the Centre among other things.
Leader of Opposition Ramesh Chennithala; Thiruvananthapuram MP Shashi Tharoor;
K C Venugopal MP; KPCC president M M Hassan; MLAs, M Vincent, V S Sivakumar and Oommen Chandy and Fishermen Congress national president T N Pratapan accompanied the Congress chief.
Ockhi relief: Guv hands over one month’s salary
T’Puram: The contribution of Governor P Sathasivam’s one month’s salary towards Cyclone Ockhi relief fund was handed over to the government here on Thursday. Davendra Kumar Dhodawat, Secretary to the Governor, handed over the amount in the form of a cheque to Chief Secretary K M Abraham. The Governor had on December 9 announced that he would contribute his one month’s salary towards the relief fund.
Balm for fishers to get over Ockhi-induced stress
T’Puram: With the fisher households coming under severe mental and emotional stress on account of Cyclone Ockhi, the state government has envisaged a programme to provide psychological support to the fishermen community. As part of this, it has been decided to set up small groups headed by counsellors who will provide the necessary support. Health Minister K K Shylaja said the aim is to help restore their mental health and bring them back to normal life.
The teams will visit the households and provide them with the necessary help, she told a training programme held here for the counsellors. The counsellors of the Health and Social Justice Department will guide the team. Junior Health Inspectors, Junior Public Health Nurses(JPHN), ASHA workers, Anganwadi workers, panchayat members or ward councillors will be members of the team. The Health Department will coordinate the data collected by the teams and come up with various suggestions. The training was attended by about 80 counsellors and volunteers.
Search for bodies to continue
Kozhikode: The district administration will ensure every facility to preserve bodies of people which were recovered from the sea, said District Collector U V Jose. He was briefing the decisions taken at the meeting of the Disaster Manage-ment Committee held on Thursday at the Collector Conference Hall. The District Collector told reporters the Health Department is arranging facilities to conduct the postmortem of the bodies. The officials are also collecting the DNA samples for identifying the bodies, he said adding the samples would be sent to the Rajiv Gandhi Institute, Thiruvananthapuram, for detailed analysis. Officials confirmed that 19 bodies have been recovered so far from the sea in Kozhikode in the past two days.
The district administration said facilities have been arranged at the Medical College Hospital and other hospitals in the district to store the bodies of the Cyclone victims. Also, the Disaster Management Department will procure body bags for the Coast Guard to store the bodies as soon as they are recovered. The Collector said the meeting deci-ded to continue the search operations in the sea.