“Out of the 244 boats that went for deep sea fishing, 162 have returned to the coast and officials should take steps for safe return of the remaining fishing boats,” said the Chief Minister.

Meanwhile, former fisheries minister D Jayakumar on Sunday appealed to the Centre and the state governments to take steps to rescue 10 fishermen from Nagapattinam, who set out in the Arabian Sea, have been missing as the red alert was sounded by the government about Cyclone Tauktae.

“Ten fishermen from Samanthanpettai in Nagapattinam district went for deep-sea fishing. The fishing boat was reported to be stranded about 200 nautical miles off the coast of Kochi. I request the Centre and the state, Navy and Coast Guard to rescue the boat and the fishermen,” the senior AIADMK leader Jayakumar tweeted on Sunday.

P Justin Antony, founding president, International Fishermen Development Trust (INFIDET), met Fisheries Minister Anitha R Radhakrishnan at Kanniyakumari and submitted a memorandum urging the state to use helicopters in the fishermen search operations.

Earlier, family members of the missing fishermen submitted a petition to Nagapattinam Collector Praveen P Nair on Saturday to rescue the stranded men. According to the family members, 10 fishermen, including Manikandan, owner of the fishing boat, set out from Kochi fishing harbour on April 29. The fate of the 10 fishermen remains unknown as they are missing according to the fishermen who returned to the Nagapattinam shore after fishing at the nearby spots in the sea.