Thiruvananthapuram: Nearly a fortnight after the Ockhi cyclone hit the Kerala coast, the waves of protests against the allegedly slipshod search and rescue operations of the state government seem to be unending.
In the latest show of disgruntlement against the manner in which the Left Democratic Front government handled the disaster, the Latin Catholic Archdiocese led a march to the Raj Bhavan in the state capital, the official residence of the state governor.
The rally and protests were led by the clergy, with the Latin Catholic archbishop M. Soosai Pakiam inaugurating the event, and auxiliary bishop R. Christudas and vicar general Eugene H. Pereira addressing the hundreds of protesters, mostly drawn from the fishing community.
Their main demand is to immediately locate the more than 200 fishermen who are still on the missing list in the wake of the Ockhi cyclone. The numbers of the missing vary from 150 to 250.
Other demands include an official declaration of the cyclone as a national disaster and a time-bound distribution of compensation to the families of victims, and implementation of a rehabilitation package for the affected families. The state government had announced an ex-gratia of Rs2 million (Dh114,088) to the families of each of the deceased.
The protesters began their march from the St Joseph’s Church at Palayam in the heart of the city, and wound towards the Raj Bhavan, seriously affecting Monday morning traffic. The capital city was brought to a standstill for a few hours by the protesters.
The Church has warned that if the government continued its ‘apathy’, the protests would be extended to the Vizhinjam and Kochi ports, and an all-night protest would be launched in front of the state secretariat.
The Latin Catholic Church believes that the state government failed in its handling of the Ockhi cyclone despite warnings from different quarters, and has even warned of protests at the state capital carrying the bodies of those who perished in the cyclone.
The protests have been unabated despite chief minister Pinarayi Vijayan’s promise that the search and rescue operations will continue until the last missing person is located.
According to official figures, 38 people from Kerala have died in the cyclone, of whom 14 are yet to be identified.
