Prime Minister Narendra Modi today assured the fishing community at Poonthura near here that the Centre would spare no effort to trace their missing fellowmen and help them rebuild their lives, in the wake of the devastating Cyclone Ockhi.
"The whole country is with you in this time of sorrow. We will do everything to search the missing fishermen," Modi said at the fishing hamlet.
He was addressing a gathering of men, women and children who had lost their kin when the cyclone lashed the coastal areas of the state on November 29-30.
"...We pray to God that before Christmas, all the missing persons return," Modi said after hearing the woes of the fisher folk who had gathered at Poonthura for hours to meet him.
Modi said he would be holding discussions with the state government this evening on ways to alleviate their grievances.
The prime minister said Defence minister Nirmala Sitharaman had visited the affected areas and taken stock of the situation as soon as the cyclone struck the region.
The Navy and Coast Guard are continuing the search operations even now, he said.
Modi also spoke to priests of the Latin Catholic church to which most of the fishermen in the region belong.
A weeping woman was heard narrating her plight to the prime minister.
"Tell us what we should do. We do not know," she said.
A fishermen said, "We are scared to go to the sea now sir".
The prime minister, who arrived here after visiting Kanyakumari and Lakshadweep, was accompanied by Union minister Alphons Kannamthanam, Kerala Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan, Governor P Sathasivam among others.
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