Owners of ‘Ajmeer Sha’, a fishing boat from Beypore which went missing two weeks ago with 15 migrant workers in the sea, have expressed rude shock over the yet-to-be successful rescue operation by various forces. They fear that any further delay in launching an extensive air-sea rescue operation off the Northern part of the West Coast will affect the remaining possibility of saving many lives.
“It was an unverified message about the missing boat that affected the whole pace of the real rescue operation. Those who circulated the message as confirmed reports in the media on May 16 had claimed that the boat had already been spotted by the rescue operators and efforts were on to tow it to the shore,” K.T. Shamsudheen, one of the boat owners told The Hindu. According to him, the message endorsed by a few responsible officers was later found wrong when they contacted the Fisheries Department for follow up actions.
“There were 11 Tamil Nadu natives and four West Bengal natives in the boat which ventured into fishing on May 5. Though all the fishing boats from Beypore harbour managed to anchor at the nearest harbours following the Cyclone threat, our boat was failing to respond to the alerts with the disrupted communication network,” said Mr. Shamsudheen. He said the boat owners’ effort to find them with the support of other local fishing boats after the cyclone threat also was proved vein.
Saddened by the continuing uncertainly, the Kerala Fishing Boat Owners’ Association have also appealed the Union government and the Minister of State for Home V. Muraleedharan to extend a helping hand to intensify the “slow going search” with limited resources. They also hope that various State governments will be able to chip in if the Fisheries department here is reaching out to them for emergency support.
Meanwhile, the officials with the Fisheries Department in Kozhikode confirm that they have been in touch with various rescue forces for a week to get reliable update on the missing boat, which is yet to be tracked by the Navy. According to Deputy Director of Fisheries B.K. Sudheerkrishna, the department has been following it up since May 16, when the missing was officially confirmed by the higher authorities. “Since then, we have been awaiting an official response from the Navy. Also, we are not aware of any unconfirmed reports on rescue as received by the fishers,” he adds.
