The feud over whether Kerala was properly forewarned about Cyclone Ockhi continued on Wednesday, even more than two days after the severe storm left Kerala-TN-Lakshadweep coasts leaving behind a trail of death and destruction, with the State Government and the India Meteorological Department (IMD) making diametrically opposite claims.
Stating that the Central IMD had given specific information only after the low-pressure system, that had built up southeast of Kanyakumari, had turned into a cyclone, Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan claimed on Wednesday. He said that there was no lapse on the part of his Government or its agencies in dealing with the situation after getting it.
“The information received on November 29 from the Indian National Centre for Ocean Information Services had only said that fishermen should not venture into the sea. The Government had relayed this to all concerned and had given it to the media for publication also,” Pinarayi told newsmen at Thiruvananthapuram after a Cabinet meeting.
“At 8.30 am on November 30, the IMD had sent a message saying that the low pressure system 170 km away from Kanyakumari had become intense. Even that message had not contained any cyclone warning. The advisory with that message was only that fishermen should not venture into the sea,” Pinarayi said.
The Chief Minister claimed that the Central IMD’s specific message on the transformation of the low pressure system southeast of Kanyakumari into Cyclone Ockhi was received only at 12.00 hours on November 30. The State Disaster Management Authority (DMA) had relayed this to all concerned within five minutes but by then most of the fishermen had gone to sea, he said.
The Central agencies had specific guidelines to follow as far as issuing warning about cyclones but none of these had been adhered to in the case of Cyclone Ockhi with respect to Kerala, the Chief Minister claimed. “There was no lapse on the part of the Government. This has already been confirmed by the Union Ministers (who visited Kerala on Sunday),” he said.
Pinarayi claimed that the Government had lost no time in initiating the steps stipulated in the Central DMA’s guidelines for meeting the emergency. “Within an hour of getting the warning, the Government had contacted the Army, Navy, Coast Guard and forces and other agencies and all of them had launched rescue operations immediately,” he said.
However, reports from Delhi quoting top IMD officials said that the weather monitoring and forecasting agency had passed specific information to the Kerala Government 24 hours before Cyclone Ockhi had reached the State Coast and that the Chief Secretary had been informed of this over the phone at that time itself.
“Kerala had been informed about the impending cyclone 24 hours before it hit the region. There is no intention to put blame on anybody. What has happened in the case of Kerala is that it did not have the preparedness to meet the emergency as it did not have prior cyclone experience,” a Delhi report quoted a top IMD official as saying.
Stating that such a massive rescue operation had never taken place in the sea off the Kerala coast till now, he claimed, the Navy, Coast Guard, Air Force and other agencies through their well-coordinated efforts had been able to rescue 2,600 fishermen including 1,130 Keralites from the cyclone-churned Arabian Sea. “The Government thanks the Defence forces for that,” he added.
Pinarayi is still under fire from fishermen across Kerala and Opposition parties over his alleged failure and that of his Government in taking appropriate and prompt measures to meet the cyclone emergency even after getting prior information. The ire against him has been so intense that fishermen had physically blocked him during his visit to a fishing hamlet on Sunday.