5 MLAs are staging protest at the Kanniyakumari Collectorate demanding implementation of their requests including appeal to the Centre to declare the recent ‘Cyclone Ockhi’, which hit the Kanniyakumari and Kerala coast last week, as a ‘national calamity’.

Kanniyakumari Disrict has been the worst-affected by last week’s cyclone which caused heavy rains, flooding, uprooting of trees and damage to many electric transformers/poles. Almost all political parties in the State have appealed to the Centre to declare the storm as ‘national calamity’ with chief-minister Edapadi K. Palaniswami writing a letter to Prime Minister Narendra Modi in this regard.

So far, the Centre hasn’t made any announcement declaring the storm as ‘national calamity’. Search is on for missing fishermen even as many Tamil fishermen, who got stranded in far-away place such as the Maharashtra and Karnataka coasts, are returning to Tamil Nadu in phases. People have been protesting hard appealing to the State to take effective steps to trace/locate the missing fishermen.

MLAs Austin, Suresh Rajan, Prince, Mano Thangaraj and Rajesh Kumar have been sitting in protest at the Kanniyakumari District Collectorate with the request that the storm be declared as ‘national calamity’ at once. They also demand that adequate compensation be paid to the rubber and plantain estates (affected by the storm) depending on their capacities of production.