The families of nine fishermen from Kasimedu who have gone missing at sea after cyclone Vardah wreaked havoc on the coast line, are still waiting for their return.Rajendran, 55, Nirmal Raj, 25, Ravi Selvam, 50, Velu, 50, Shiva, 25, Vinod, 23, Anthony, 55, Ramanan 30 and Mallikarjun, 52, were returning home when the cyclone arrived. They had earlier called up their family members and said they were on their way back. Anbu, Nirmal Raj’s father, said, “The government has not done enough to search for them I am sure they are stranded somewhere.” The families of all nine fishermen had gathered at a fisheries association office to plead with the authorities to find the men. They refused to take the interim financial relief which the minister was to hand over, sayig they wanted their men back. Speaking to TOI minister of fisheries D Jayakumar said, “The men set sail on a boat on December 9 and were to return on December 12 when Cyclone Varadah hit the coastline. At 10pm on December 12 one of them tried calling up his family. We traced the call to Krishnapatinam in Andhra Pradesh. After that we lost all contact with the men. On December 13 it was confirmed that the men were missing at sea. We alerted the navy, coast guard, passing ships and conducted aerial sorties but to no avail.”
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