The Kerala government on Saturday requested the Indian Navy, Coast Guard (CG) and Indian Air Force (IAF) to continue search operations for the fishermen who were still missing in the aftermath of Cyclone Ockhi, for another 10 days.
State Chief Secretary K.M. Abraham on Saturday sent an urgent letter to Rear Admiral R. Nadkarni, chief of staff, Southern Naval Command; Air Marshal Rakesh Kumar Singh Bhadauria, AOC Southern Air Command; and Additional Director General K. Natarajan, Coast Guard commander (western seaboard), Mumbai, an official press release said.
Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan, who was in Delhi, would be meeting Defence Minister Nirmala Sitharaman and discussing the matter with her .
He would also be meeting Union Home Minister Rajnath Singh with regard to the state's plea for a special Central package to rehabilitate families affected by the cyclone.
The chief secretary, in his letter, stated that reports had reached the state government from fishermen of Thiruvananthapuram that floating bodies of fishermen were spotted in the high seas.
The fishermen have also appealed to step up operations to retrieve the bodies and search for survivors and also take them on board the rescue ships and interceptor boats.
The chief secretary also asked the Navy and Coast Guard to mobilise sufficient ships at Vizhinjam for taking the fishermen to the deep seas in their rescue and search operations.
An official of the district administration should also be deployed in the search vessels, it was stated.
Besides, the health department was instructed to mobilise adequate storage and treatment facilities for the retrieved bodies at Vizhinjam and along the important coastal centres.
Speaking to reporters in Delhi, Vijayan said Naval and Coast Guard ships are continuing the search and rescue operations.
There are reports of bodies floating in the waters but the defence ships were unable to trace them.
Vijayan said he would also be taking up this matter with the defence minister during talks.
Yesterday, an all-party meeting had decided to knock on the Centre's doors for the special financial package.
So far, 37 persons have lost their lives in the cyclone, which left several others missing.
Meanwhile, defence sources said the Coast Guard had been searching around the northern atolls of Maldives.
The Maldives fishing community had located an overturned fishing vessel 70 nautical miles of Makanadhoo on Saturday, which was identified as a Sri Lankan fishing vessel.
INS Mumbai had searched the locations around three islands and found no vessels in distress, the sources said, adding INS Koswari would also be arriving in the area to participate in the search operations.
Dornier aircraft of the Coast Guard would conduct sorties till Sunday over North Maldives to locate any drifting fishing vessels.
The head of the Latin Catholic Church, Archbishop Soosai Pakiyam, expressed the church's dissatisfaction over the rescue and relief operations.
