Three more bodies found; Ockhi death toll 44

Thiruvananthapuram: Three more bodies were recovered from different parts of the state on Monday taking the death toll in Cyclone Ockhi to 44. According to officials, a body each was retrieved from Chellanam in Ernakulam, Ponnani and Vizhinjam. The official figure of missing fishermen was revised again on Monday. While the number of missing persons stood at 146, FIRs are yet to be registered in the case of 34  missing persons for various reasons. With the addition of these persons the list would go up to 180. The revenue department has also come out with a detailed list of missing persons. 111 returned in Kochi: As many as 111 persons and 13 boats have returned to Kochi on Monday. With this, the total number of fishermen who returned to Kochi is 2312.

However, 23 boats from Kochi are yet to be tracked. Two bodies have been found by the Coast Guard which  are kept at Ernakulam General hospital and Tripunithura taluk hospital. Meanwhile, district collector Muhammad Y Safirulla has instructed to complete the cleaning works at Chellanam by December 15. Details of fully and partially damaged houses also have to be submitted soon, he said. Shashi Tharoor MP, Mullapally Ramachandran and K C Venugopal, who represent coastal constituencies, called on union home minister Rajnath Singh in Delhi on Monday to discuss the rehabilitation package for Ockhi hit fishermen in Kerala.

In a tweet, Tharoor said the home minister had informed the delegation that a central team would be dispatched to the affected areas soon to assess the devastation caused by Ockhi cyclone. Mr Tharoor said he had also raised the demand for a dedicated Union Fisheries Ministry. The delegation also urged the  minister to fix responsibility for the failure to issue timely warning about Cyclone. The Coast Guard ships and aircraft continued search and rescue operations following cyclone ‘Ockhi’. The CG ships have so far rescued 405 fishermen from sea and retrieved seven bodies so far. A defence release said some of these bodies were found entangled with fishing nets in partially submerged country boats. The Coast Guard divers undertook the task to remove these bodies from the entwined net of capsized boats.

The divers spent more than four hours to extricate the bodies. Three bodies were handed over at Vypin and four at Vizhinjam out of which two bodies were recovered by CGS Sankalp, approximately 24 nautical miles away from Kochi. These were handed over on Sunday. One body recovered by CGS  Abhinav  approximately 90 nautical miles away from Kochi and one recovered by CGS Samar approximately 138 nm west of Alleppey were  handed over on Monday. Chief minister's office staff will contribute '2,05,000 towards cyclone Ockhi Relief Fund. The amount will be handed over to chief minister on Wednesday.