Requested @nsitharaman to have the Central Govt. declare the #OckhiCyclone disaster as a “National Calamity”&ensure urgent steps are taken to...

DMK working president M.K. Stalin formally communicated with Union Defence Minister Nirmala Sitharaman on December 5, 2017, demanding that the central government officially designate the Cyclone Ockhi devastation as a National Calamity. Stalin emphasized that the extraordinary ferocity of the cyclone had caused unprecedented destruction across Kanyakumari district, obliterating fishing assets, uprooting extensive plantation crops, and displacing thousands of vulnerable families from their coastal homes.

Stalin urged the Defence Ministry to intensify air and naval search missions across deeper sea coordinates where distressed fishing trawlers were reportedly adrift. He stressed that standard administrative responses were thoroughly inadequate for a catastrophe of this magnitude. Immediate release of substantial central relief packages was critically required to help affected communities rebuild their shattered lives and restore basic public infrastructure.

The DMK leader underscored that safeguarding citizens in disaster-hit border districts was the paramount responsibility of both federal and state authorities. He insisted on comprehensive financial compensation for damaged vessels, debt relief for devastated farmers, and modernized cyclone shelter networks. Stalin reaffirmed that the DMK would vigorously pursue every legitimate institutional channel until comprehensive relief was delivered to southern Tamil Nadu.