Kochi/Thiruvananthapuram, May 27 (PTI) Kerala Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan on Tuesday instructed the Chief Secretary of the state to use the service of the civil defence to remove plastic that floated off from a Liberian ship that sank off the state’s coast and accumulated in some coastal areas.
A statement issued by the Chief Minister’s Office (CMO) said that in view of Vijayan’s instruction to quickly find a solution to the problem, the Chief Secretary called an emergency meeting of the District Collectors of Thiruvananthapuram, Kollam and Alappuzha.
The CM, according to the statement, also said there was no need to be concerned as the waste can be removed and the shoreline will be restored to its previous condition soon.
Following the CM’s direction, the Chief Secretary held a meeting in which it was decided that the concerned Collectors will share the information they have with the government through a single point of contact, another CMO statement said.
It was also decided that the Kerala State Disaster Management Authority (KSDMA) will provide the Collectors with the protocol for handling the items that wash up on the shore from the sunken ship.
It was further decided that no unauthorised persons should go near the cargo washed ashore and announcements can be made over loudspeakers informing the public about the same, the statement said.
Besides these, the District Collectors were directed to prepare volunteers under the supervision of the Fire and Rescue Department, it said.
Meanwhile, state Finance Minister K N Balagopal visited the coastal areas where the containers and other cargo from the ship — MSC ELSA 3 — washed ashore and gave instructions for their timely removal without impacting the environment and to ensure the safety of the people.
Around 25 containers washed ashore in Kollam and more than that ended up in the coastal areas of Thiruvananthapuram, according to government sources. The exact figures cannot be given as more were being slowly swept to shore from the sea.
The minister said that the dangers posed by the chemical waste in the cargo will have to be assessed through scientific tests and directed that a team of experts be appointed to look into that.
Earlier in the day, the Indian Coast Guard (ICG) said no oil has made its way to the Kerala shores from the Liberian cargo ship that sank off the state’s coast two days ago.
A defence PRO, in a post on the social media platform X, said that efforts were currently underway by the ICG, with the assistance of multiple coast guard assets, to deal with the oil spill caused by the shipwreck.
“The situation regarding the oil spill is currently managed and under close observation by @IndiaCoastGuard. As of 1330 hr today, no oil has made its way to the shores of #Kerala state,” the post on X said.
On Monday, there were concerns that the oil spill might reach the Kerala shores as the fuel was drifting at a speed of around three kilometres per hour.
The same day, the ICG said it deployed offshore patrol vessels for monitoring the site and has intensified surveillance and spill mitigation efforts.
The Liberian container vessel sank 15 nautical miles off the Kochi coast early on Sunday, due to flooding.
It went down with 640 containers, including 13 with hazardous cargo and 12 containing calcium carbide. It was also loaded with 84.44 MT of diesel and 367.1 MT of furnace oil, the Ministry of Defence said on Sunday.
A day later, the ministry, in another statement, said that the Indian Coast Guard’s surveillance aircraft detected an “oil slick” at the site, and the ICG launched a “full-scale pollution response operation”.
Of the 24 crew members onboard the Liberian vessel, 21 had been rescued by the ICG on Sunday, and the remaining three were later rescued by INS Sujata, which joined the rescue operation launched by the ICG. PTI HMP COR HMP ROH
Category: Breaking News
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