Rescue op more intense than during 2004 tsunami: Minister

THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: Defence minister Nirmala Sitharaman said on Monday that representatives of fishermen will also be included in the ongoing search operation to rescue the missing in Kerala.

The minister said the joint operation of the Indian Navy, Air Force and Coast Guard will continue till the last man is saved from the sea after visiting the two worst-hit fishing hamlets of Vizhinjam and Poonthura in Thiruvananthapuram district.

Sitharaman had reached Kanyakumari on Sunday to take stock of the situation in the wake of the cyclonic storm, which has tormented the coastal areas of Tamil Nadu and Kerala and now Lakshadweep islands.

“People of the coast are in deep distress. The government will do everything to alleviate their suffering. I will inform the Prime Minister and home minister what I have seen,” she said in Poonthura. “We have even deployed warships. The rescue operation this time is more intense than the one during the tsunami in 2004,” she added.

She informed that, so far, 357 fishermen, including 71 from Tamil Nadu, who had been stranded in sea due to Cyclone Ockhi, have been rescued.

She later chaired a meeting with Kerala chief minister Pinarayi Vijayan.

Tempers ran high on the coast when Sitharaman arrived and the angry relatives of the missing fishermen took exception to the presence of two state ministers in the team. Sitharaman had a tough time pacifying them.

On Sunday, the CM was heckled by an angry crowd and had to leave without his official car. The affected people have said the government did not give them the warning about the cyclone on time and that its response to the situation was delayed. They also blocked roads at several places.