Tamil Nadu will provide relief immediately: Madras High Court

Chennai: The Madras high court has expressed its expectation that the state government shall take immediate steps to undertake immediate relief measures to fishermen affected by the recent Cyclone "Ockhi".

The First Bench comprising Chief Justice Indira Banerjee and Justice R.Hemalatha disposed of the Public Interest Litigations from Fisherman Care and advocate A.P.Suryaprakasam.

In its petition, Fisherman Care sought a direction to the Union and Tamil Nadu government to file a report before the court about the details of the rescue operations carried out by them along with the list of fishermen rescued and the steps taken to trace the missing fishermen and consequently direct them to formulate rehabilitation schemes to rehabilitate the families of the Indian Tamil Fishermen, who were affected by cyclone Ockhi by providing compensation, employment and financial assistance.

Suryaprakasam in his petition sought a direction to the Union and TN government to initiate and co-ordinate all the resources available with them to save the lives of more than 2000 fishermen who caught in the rough sea of Indian ocean due to the impact of cyclone and now battling for their lives.

Referring to a GO issued during floods in 2015 relating to the norms of assistance, the bench said there has to be identification of beneficiaries for disaster relief so that the disaster relief was not misused. The norms shall be applied in case of victims of cyclone Ockhi. Immediate relief measures provided in the norms relating to temporary accommodation, food, clothing, medicine etc shall be undertaken. "Since the petition was in public interest and it was not an adversarial litigation, we need not go into the question whether steps taken by the government are appropriate or not. We expect that steps shall be taken", the bench added.