CHENNAI: State will be declaring 191 fishermen, who remained untraceable after cyclonic storm Ockhi struck, as construed dead.
The entire process for declaring a fisherman construed dead has been completed and the Collectors of the districts where these fishermen hail from are compiling the final report before the government makes the announcement.
Of the total 191 missing fishermen, 139 are from the worst-affected Kanniyakumari. The State has earlier relaxed the rule which says a missing fisherman can be declared dead or untraceable only after a gap of seven years. The Animal Husbandry, Dairying and Fisheries Departments had passed a government order that applies only to disappearance during Cyclone Ockhi, reducing seven years to six months for disbursal of Rs 20 lakh ex-gratia.
Senior officials of the Tamil Nadu Disaster Management told Express that as per the government order, taluk-level committees have been formed in the affected districts and village-level enquiries conducted to confirm that the fishermen were reported missing in the cyclone and bodies were not recovered.
The officials said the Collectors had already issued notifications in the gazette and the vernacular press with details of the missing fishermen, asking general public to provide information, if any, within 15 days.
“We are currently awaiting the final report from the District Collectors before the government declares these fishermen as construed dead,” an official said.
The first instalment of Rs 10 lakh will be given to the families of fishermen once the they are declared dead and the second instalment of Rs 10 lakh will be disbursed after a period of six months from the date when the fishermen were reported missing, sources said.
Rajendra Ratnoo, Commissioner of Tamil Nadu Disaster Management, said search and rescue operations were conducted till January and letters sent to the neighbouring island nations where there are inhabited islands to search for stranded fishermen or damaged boats, but there had been no information about these 191 fishermen.