Cyclone Ockhi: Narendra Modi to visit storm-hit fishing villages in Tamil Nadu, Kerala

Thiruvananthapuram: After Congress president-elect Rahul Gandhi visited villages hit by Cyclone Ockhi and commiserated with families of fisher folk, Prime Minister Narendra Modi is also said to visit Kerala and Tamil Nadu soon, an official said. [caption id=“attachment_4260555” align=“alignleft” width=“380”] Representational image. PTI[/caption] Putting an end to political criticism, Modi was expected to visit the southern districts of these states, possibly on Monday or Tuesday. However, the exact date was not known. According to informed sources, he will visit two fishing villages in Thiruvananthapuram and one in Kanyakumari. Kerala government officials have said that the official intimation about Modi’s visit has come. It was on 30 November that Ockhi struck and left more than 70 fishermen from the southern districts of Thiruvananthapuram and Kollam dead, while more than 250 of them were yet to be traced. The Kerala government has blamed the Centre and the weather monitoring organisations for not properly conveying the arrival of Ockhi. The weather officials in their turn have said that right from 28 November at regular intervals, they had alerted the Kerala government of what was in store. Kerala chief minister Pinarayi Vijayan has come under severe attack as despite being in the capital city, he has failed to travel 10 kilometre to visit the grieving fishermen families. While defence minister Nirmala Sitaraman flew down and visited these villages, the Congress party leadership blamed Modi for not arriving to be with the grieving. On Thursday, Gandhi spend time with fishermen both at Thiruvananthapuram and at Kanyakumari.