NEW DELHI: Kerala Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan on Saturday called on Union Home Minister Rajnath Singh here and apprised him of the situation in the State in the wake of cyclone Ockhi and sought financial assistance from the Centre to rehabilitate the people affected by the disaster.
Pinarayi is also learnt to have urged the Home Minister for continuation of the search and rescue operations for another week to bring succour to the fishing community of the State. Hundreds of the fishermen and scores of boats are still missing, official sources said.
While Pinarayi thanked Singh for coordinated efforts towards search and relief operations, the Home Minister assured the CM that the Government will look sympathetically into the issue of financial assistance from the National Disaster Relief Fund, sources said. Singh also informed Pinarayi that the search and relief operations will continue for the next 72 hours and the same will be extended as per the operational requirements.
A total of 3,25,000 square miles have been searched by Navy during the last 10 days of search operations.
‘OP Sahayam’ of Southern Naval Command continued its search operation for the tenth day on Saturday over Southeast Arabian Sea and Lakshadweep islands. Ten ships and all aircraft have continued search and rescue (SAR) operations in the past 72 hours and the search area was increased up to the coast of Maldives. However, no stranded boats, fishermen or floating bodies have been found in this duration, the Government said in an update on the operations.
INS Kabra, INS Sagardhwani and maritime reconnaissance aircraft P8I were deployed off the coast of Allepey and south of Thiruvananthapuram, based on inputs received from Kerala State Administration about floating bodies in the area.
INS Sujata equipped with Portable Mobile Morgue, sailed out from Kochi on Saturday for enabling it to bring bodies if found. Thiruvananthapuram Sub collector Divya S. Iyer along with four local fishermen would be embarking the ship at sunrise on Sunday off Vizhinjam port for joining the deep sea search operations, while Indian Coast Guard Ship Abhinav which arrived off Vizhinjam in the evening on Saturday embarked 10 fishermen from pozhiyoor for co-ordinated search. The search is expected to continue up to 72 hours, the statement added.