Even while the State government grappled with the swath left by the cyclonic rain in the State, an unseemly row erupted over the timely issuance of a cyclone alert.
Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan dismissed the allegation that the government had failed to take effective steps to tackle the situation, terming it as a misunderstanding about the issue. He said the State received the cyclone warning at 12 noon on Thursday.
Prior to that there was no cyclone alert, though the general information about the weather was available. As far as the State government was concerned, it could initiate emergency action only on the basis of the cyclone warning made available. Given this background, there was no delay on the part of the government to reach relief to the victims.
However, Leader of the Opposition Ramesh Chennithala said the adverse impact of the Ockhi cyclone could have been reduced had the State government departments paid attention to the warning officially issued by the Union Home Ministry to the State government at 5 p.m. on November 29.
The Indian Meteorological Department and the Central Ocean Research Institute had informed the State Disaster Management Authority about intensity of the cyclone. The usual practice is to evacuate people before the cyclone’s fall was registered. But the government did not take any step to coordinate relief work till very late.
Mr. Chennithala, along with former Chief Minister Oommen Chandy, Shashi Tharoor, V.S. Sivakumar, and DCC president Neyyatinkkara Sanal, visited the affected areas in Thiruvananthapuram. He wanted the State government to distribute free ration to the affected families in the coastal areas.
He urged the State government to announce a compensation scheme for fishermen who had lost their boats. Mr. Chandy refused to be drawn into any controversy over the State government’s response to the situation, stating that the focus should be on reaching relief to the affected people.
