By Sujata Jena

Thiruvananthapuram: Archbishop Maria Calist Soosa Pakiam of Trivandrum led a protest rally to Raj Bhavan on December 11 demanding adequate compensation package for affected fishermen in the aftermath of Ockhi cyclone that hit last week in country’s southern coast.

“This is a protest rally against the inadequate compensation announced by the federal and Kerala State governments and the failure of the governments rescuing the missing fish workers,” said Archbishop Pakiam.

The protest started from Cantonment at 11.30 am towards Raj Bhavan. The nearly one hundred thousand from different parishes reached Raj Bhavan demanding the Government ‘Evite poyi sarkare?, Matcha Thozhilali vanilla’ (Oh Government where have you gone? bring back our missing fishermen).

There is a widespread strong resentment among the people after the cyclone Ockhi that lead to this massive rally.

About 100 fishermen are still missing in the wake of the powerful storm.

Protestors coming from every parish of Trivandrum Catholic Archdiocese demanded the central government must name cyclone Ockhi as the National Disaster and the Prime Minister to visit the affected areas and make an assessment of it.

Secondly, the protest was demanding to set a separate fishery department at the center and appoint a separate ministry at the center.

Thirdly, it was to disperse immediately the compensation packages announced by the center and the state respectively.

It is said that since there has not been a separate Ministry of the fishery at the center, the State Government machinery is inadequate to launch it rescue operation beyond restricted areas.

Almost 10 days passed after the cyclone and the Government is not able to give a definite information about the missing fisher-folks.

For the past one week, several agitations were witnessed across the coastal belt in the southern districts of Kerala and Tamilnadu which are worst affected, in terms of loss of lives and livelihood, apart from coastal erosion.

The Latin Archdiocese is one of the paramount dioceses with the leadership of Archbishop Pakiam and making a positive impact in the lives of the needy through its concrete initiative for social justice and social action!

Moved by the call of the Archbishop, every the priest in the archdiocese is engaged from the day one to be at the service of the fisherfolk families.

Trivandrum Social Service Society (TSSS) and Center for Fishery Service (CFS) are the two agencies which are actively monitoring and organizing the rescue of the fishermen as well the as accompanying the families. These two centers are the social action wings of the Latin Archdiocese, Trivandrum.

Fr. Lenin Raj, director of TSSS and Fr. Shajan Jose, director of CFS have been serving as catalysts in responding to the immediate needs of the grief-stricken families.

The executive director of Caritas India Fr. Frederick D’Souza visited Trivandrum after the cyclone and planning interventions along with TSSS.

The Latin Archdiocese of Trivandrum has one of the best crisis intervention models for the other dioceses to emulate.