Sixteen fishermen from Sundergarh district in Orissa still remained untraced after the trawlers got trapped in storm in Arabian sea off the Goa coast last week, official sources said today.
An assistant labour commissioner from Rourkela, BK Patnaik left for Goa yesterday to enquire about the fishermen, district collector Salini Pandit said in a note today.
The missing persons had gone for fishing in four trawlers on November 12, along with others but no contact could be established with the vessels later on, sources said.
Goa chief minister Digamber Kamat confirmed on the next day that five trawlers with 39 members on-board were yet to be traced and announced compensation of Rs1 lakh each to the kin of the 39 fishermen.
A pall of gloom prevailed in several villages in Balishankara and Subdega blocks of Sundergarh as no news trickled about the missing fishermen.
The family members, from Bhandari Shankara, Gaenpalli, Kurai, Khanpur, Bandabahal, Runipani and Sikajore left for Goa to confirm the whereabouts.
While unconfirmed reports suggested about 2,000 labourers from two blocks in the district were working at Goa under different contractors, the Sundergarh district administration and labour department said there was no corroborative official statistics.
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