Fishermen’s loss yet to be assessed for compensation

Administrators, fisheries officials accused of lethargy in addressing issue

The loss suffered by fishermen families in the latest episodes of coastal erosion in Kozhikode district is yet to be assessed by local administrators to help them obtain the compensation from the State government. Fisheries Department officials said that they would address only the compensation requests related to the damage caused to marine fishing implements and the rest of the grievances related to the ruin of houses or land would have to be addressed by the local bodies concerned. According to the report of the District Disaster Management Authority, the total number of houses destroyed in the latest rain-related calamities in Kozhikode is only seven. Fishermen organisations claim that this figure hardly represented the fact as it had excluded the details of many fishermen who lost their houses.