25 boats engaged to search 271 missing Kumari fishermen over 900 nautical miles, says State

Search operation to trace 271 fishermen who went missing after cyclone Ockhi hit is being carried over nearly 900 nautical miles, the State government has submitted before the Madurai Bench of the Madras High Court.

 MADURAI : Search operation to trace 271 fishermen who went missing after cyclone Ockhi hit is being carried over nearly 900 nautical miles, the State government has submitted before the Madurai Bench of the Madras High Court.The submission was made in a counter-affidavit to a petition seeking to trace 551 fishermen of Kanniyakumari who were missing during the cyclone. When the case came up for hearing before a Bench comprising R Subbiah and A D Jagadish Chandira, the State filed a counter affidavit stating that so far 318 fishermen had been reported missing.

Of them, 47 returned on Thursday. Further, efforts were on to rescue the remaining 271 fishermen. Twenty five boats were being used in the search operations.Anto Lenin from Kanniyakumari had filed a Habeas Corpus petition stating that Justin Babu Mellkiyas, his cousin, went for fishing in the deep sea on November 23 in a boat ‘Thaiyalmatha’ along with others. 

Thirteen fishermen returned on November 30 after a long struggle in the sea,but his cousin did not. 
He submitted the names of 551 fishermen who went missing and also contended that they were the only earning members of their families and those they left behind were suffering untold hardship. 
Fishermen leaders had taken great efforts to trace the missing persons, but could not locate them, he further said. 

Related Stories

No stories found.
The New Indian Express
www.newindianexpress.com